Materials needed: transparencies of brains, fixed rat brain,
fixed sheep brain, human brain model, brain diagram handout, medical
dividers for two-point threshold.
I. Introduction:
II. everything you do reflects activity in brain.
A. what you think is good and bad.
B. who you like and who you don't
III. Differences between people are do to differences in their brains.
IV. Brain is affected by what happens to you.
V. show pictures of brain, different regions do different things.
A. show color trans of brain: vision, hearing, feeling, moving.
B. more complex functions in frontal lobe.
C. homunculi: image of body on brain. Why do some parts of body
look bigger than others? What does this mean about sensitivity?
1. tell them that will demonstrate importance of amount of
cortex devoted to each body part.
D. need connections to spinal cord so you can move.
E. traumatic brain injury-wear your helmets. Nature of injury depends
on where you hit.
1. What part of brain is likely to be hurt if hit car door with
bicycle. frontal lobe. review its functions.
VI. kids look at brains and brain model in 2 groups.
A. brains: point out difference in size of rat and sheep.
B. why is cortex wrinkled?
C. different regions for vision, speech (on model), hearing, feeling,
moving.
D. point out thalamus: modified information coming up from spinal
cord to cortex.
E. basal ganglia: modify information from cortex to spinal cord. Point
out that behavior is movement and requires spinal cord.
F. hypothalamus: control hunger, thirst, reproduction, hormones.
VII. talk: brain is not jello. Actually made up of cells. Brain works by sending
messages from one cell to another, connections called synapses (1
overhead).
A. ask: if entire brain made up of cells, why do different regions do
different things.
VIII. divide into groups: Before dividing, remind them that some parts of body
have big area on cortex and other parts have small area.
A. one group of kids looks at cells in microscope.
B. one group does 2 point discrimination.
IX. ask kids to play neurologist and give out diagram to put answers on.
A. if someone has a accident and changes from being well organized
and responsible to irresponsible, where is lesion likely to be.
B. if some one gets a bullet wound and can't see where is lesion?
C. someone is in an accident and can't feel anything below the waist
and can't move legs, where is lesion?
D. continue this if time, if not just ask where hearing, movement, and
touch are located.