A collection of lessons on the human brain and five senses derived from Neuroscience for Kids (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html). This unit also focuses on what happens if you suffer brain damage, as inspired by Dr. Elena Plante's lecture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB2X5g6qF6I&feature=player_embedded) and how often brain injuries result in the loss of friends (an important lesson for middle & high school students).

1. Lose your Brain, Lose your Friends
Project inspired by Dr. Elena Plante’s comment:
When you lose a part of your brain, you lose your friends. Middle school students are
extremely social and convinced they are invincible. As a cyclist, on and off road and
commuter, I find I nearly always cringe when I see someone out on a bike without a
helmet. Sure, that helmet won’t protect you from breaking your neck or some other
essential body part, but often an injury to the brain can be prevented and those
injuries can have serious side-effects.
Introduction:
• Time permitting, view all of part of PBS Evolution series, “The Mind’s Big
Bang”
o http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/index.html
o It does a great job of introducing why the human brain is distinct and
suggesting why we are the way we are…
• Put up some common myths or misconceptions on the board:
o Humans only use 10% of their brain
o Size of the brain is related to intelligence, bigger is better.
• Ask kids to produce a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart about the
brain. Allow students to complete the K and W, and then have them share with
a neighbor. Choose a few to share with the class.
Activity:
Share the idea that if you lose part of your brain, one side-effect might be that you
lose your friends.
• Brainstorm ways you can lose brain function (bike accident, car accident,
stroke, hypoxia, drug use).
• Brainstorm ways you can avoid losing brain function. (Wear a helmet, stay
healthy – exercise, eat right, don’t use drugs, wear your seat belt, travel in
cars with air bags, etc.)
• Introduce the major sections of the human brain (review their functions
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nsdivide.html) and use a coloring page:
o http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/colorb8.html
o http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/colorb7.html
o http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/colorb9.html
o http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/brain3.html
 http://www.dls.ym.edu.tw/neuroscience/pdf/color.pdf
o The Human Brain Coloring Book (Cos, 306) by Marian C. Diamond ,
Arnold B. Scheibel
• Create a product that is a PSA (public service announcement) to inform their
peers about what they learned.
o Choose a brain region:
 What functions are related to that region?

2.  How would loss of those functions affect your life? Particularly
focusing on how that loss of function would impact relationships
with friends.
 How many people suffer from these types of injuries and how did
they get them? Include stats on the number of injuries that are
reported affecting the region.
o The students write notes with references and a reflection that outlines
this impact these essential questions.
o Create the PSA: Commercial (video or audio), Bumper sticker, Poster,
Puzzle, Song/poem, Post card etc.
Extensions:
Watch
Nova - Secrets Of The Mind – investigates brain injuries and impacts
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0306/02.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html - mirror neurons
Somewhere I saw a TV show about kids who had hemispherectomies for treatment of
epilepsy and lost the major left regions that accounted for speech and motor skills. The
show demonstrated how they survived and the other side of the brain compensated
significantly. I can’t remember if it was Discovery Health or something – perhaps
someone else knows…
Labs
If you have time, several simple lab activities (done as a series of station rotations)
may enrich their understanding of the five senses and the brain. Many are based off
this excellent web resource:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chsense.html
Also recommended - http://www.hhmi.org/senses/
1. Sight http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
Dissect Eyes (cow or sheep)
Dissection equip
Info on eye structure and function
2. Nervous system
Dissect or/explore a sectioned brain (sheep)
Dissecting scopes
Loupes
Info on brain function and structure
3. Taste http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chtaste.html
Long ago I read an article that taste was related to temperature, try a taste activity
using ice to cool the tongue first.
Dissect/explore tongues (cow - butcher shop)
Dissection scopes

3. Loupes
Info on tongue structure and function
Activity for taste: jelly beans, blind fold, clothes pin, ice
4. Smell http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chsmell.html
(Perhaps try ice here as well, to investigate the connection between taste & smell)
Smell and memory vials
Info on olfactory structure and function
lemon orange peel cedar wood perfume soaked cotton
banana pine needles chocolate coffee
dirt vanilla garlic onion
mint vinegar moth balls rose flowers
5. Touch http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chtouch.html
Nerve ending activities
Info on touch receptors and sensors
Sensation Swirls
Those fingertip whorls aren't just good for gripping objects and identifying people; they also enable you to feel fine
textures and tiny objects. French researchers constructed two mechanical sensors, one with a ridged end tip and
another with a smooth one; they then ran them over various textured surfaces, measuring the vibrations picked up by
the fingerprinted sensors. Each ridge magnified the frequency range well suited for detection by nerve endings in the
skin called Pacinian corpuscles. The work, published online January 29 by Science, helps to explain how the sense
of touch accurately informs our surroundings [see "Worlds of Feeling"; SciAm Mind, December 2004].
--Kate Wilcox
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=updates-melting-glaciers-sea-level (Scientific
American April 2009)
6. Sound http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chhearing.html
Info on structure and function of ears
Sound games
Anti-Loudness Protein
Fans of club music and rock concerts who like the volume cranked up to 11 but want to save their hearing might
someday pop a pill rather than plugging their ears. Scientists have pinpointed the biochemical mechanism in ears that
works to limit damaging effects of loud sound. When a noise registers in the brain as too loud, the protein nAChR,
located on sensory hair cells in the inner ear, kicks in to limit the ability of the hair cells to respond. Mice genetically
altered to produce a more potent nAChR could not hear soft sounds, and they suffered less permanent damage to
their hearing when scientists blasted 100-decibel noise at their ears. "We know some drugs can modify the protein,"
says Paul Fuchs of Johns Hopkins University, who published the findings in the January 20 PLoS Biology. "But we
need to know more about specific amounts" before a sound-protecting drug can be made. So don't toss the earplugs
yet.
--Kate Wilcox
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=updates-melting-glaciers-sea-level (Scientific
American April 2009)
7. Technology/invent
Popular Science or other current articles on inventions for repairing loss of these
senses
Design a prototype…
Puzzles & Worksheets:

4. http://www.dls.ym.edu.tw/neuroscience/works.html