Day 2: The Nervous System

Goals WHAT WILL PEOPLE DO AND CREATE? -Trace someone and use yarn to represent their nervous system -Play a game that acts out how the nervous system works

Objectives WHAT WILL PEOPLE LEARN? -The nervous system is responsible for sending messages between your brain and the rest of your body. -It is made of the brain, spine and nerves.

Preparation and Materials WHAT DO YOU NEED TO GET READY? -A list of body parts for the game MATERIALS -Several pieces of butcher paper as long as your students are tall. -Two colors of yarn -Printouts of the brain -Aluminum foil, toilet paper rolls, or something else to represent the spine -Tape or glue -Markers -Several printouts of an outline of the human body

Activity 1 Exploring the nervous system To have an experience related to the nervous system and then talk about it Explore -Divide students into pairs -Have one person close their eyes and their partner touches them somewhere on their body. -The person with eyes closed has to say where they were touched. -After 1 or 2 turns, switch roles

Explain -Ask students how they knew where they were being touched if they couldnʼt see it. Talk about what they think is going on. -Explain to them that there are things called nerves that sense what is going on and send this information to the brain through an electrical signal.

Activity 2 Students will talk about the different parts of the nervous system and create a visual representation of this. To create a visual representation of the nervous system and talk about each part. Ask students what would happen if you touched something hot or sharp. Discuss how you would move your hand out of the way. Use this example to talk about how your brain has a way to send messages back to your body parts as well. Explain that today you will be learning about the nervous system. Ask if anyone knows what it is and share ideas. Then ask what they know about the word nervous and how theyʼve heard it used before. Have a 5-10 minute discussion about these two things. Show them a video that explains the basic parts of the nervous system (like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjyI4CmBOA0) or just show a picture and point out the different parts Emphasize that your nervous system has four major parts: the brain, the spine, the sensory nerves and the motor nerves. Split students into groups. Have each group make a nervous system by

1. Tracing a person’s body 2. Cutting out a brain print out and gluing/taping it to the head 3. Making a spine out of aluminum foil or a paper towel tube 4. Adding nerves from yarn, with one color for the sensory nerves and

another for the motor nerves

Activity 3 Students will act out how the nervous system works To reinforce the parts of the nervous system and what they do Explain the parts of the game and split the students into groups of 3. Have each group choose one person to be the brain, one to be the nerve, and another to be the body parts. Give the “brains” an outline of the human body and a writing utensil. The game will be a version of telephone where the nerve is running back and forth between the brain and the body parts to pass on the message. You will reveal one body part at a time to the “Body parts”, who will whisper the message to the nerve. The nerve will then run to the brain and whisper the message before running back to get the next message. When the brain receives the message, s/he will put an X on that spot on their body outline. This will be done in a race, but at the end, read off your list of body parts and have each team total how many they answered correctly. You may want to switch roles after a round. Brain Nerve Body Parts