Week 1 lesson
The Endurance Animal
Why can humans keep going when faster animals must stop?
Learning outcome
Explain how at least three physiological systems cooperate to support endurance running.
Lesson route
- 1Compare maximum speed with sustainable locomotion.
- 2Trace oxygen from the atmosphere to working skeletal muscle.
- 3Map metabolic heat production, heat transfer, and heat loss.
- 4Introduce structure-function reasoning.
- 5Distinguish an observation from a physiological explanation.
Why We Run reading lens
Use Why We Run as a lens on adaptation. Identify one claim about locomotion, one form of evidence used to support it, and one place where the narrative extends beyond what the evidence alone establishes.
Work from your own summary and paraphrase. Do not reproduce long quotations.
In-class investigation
Build a systems relay. Groups move a runner through ventilation, gas exchange, circulation, muscle oxygen use, ATP turnover, and heat loss. At every handoff, identify a possible failure point.
Deliverable
A one-page endurance claim map containing three connected physiological mechanisms and one unresolved question.