Human Body Unit - Week 16 - Nerves

Week 16: We sent messages through the simple nerves we created.


Our bodies are filled with tiny receptors that send messages from all parts of our bodies to our brain. Light, heat, and pressure are a few of the sensations our nerves can detect. Referencing David Macaulay's The Way We Work book, we built a few nerves and used them to send messages.

Materials
yarn in different colors
scissors
beads

Time Required - 1 hour

A piece of yarn was cut approximately 3 feet long and one bead of the same color was added to each end to create one nerve and receptor.

In total twenty nerve/receptors were created for this project. The yarn color indicated the body part where the receptor was located.

Green Yarn - Leg
Orange Yarn - Arm
Blue Yarn - Back
Pink Yarn - Head

The bead color indicated the type of receptor.
Black Bead - Pain
White Bead - Touch
Red Bead - Hot
Blue Bead - Cold
Pink Bead - Deep Pressure

The nerves were strung over the couch.

Two kids on one side of the couch sent messages to the brain on the other side of the couch. On several small pieces of paper I wrote the messages to be sent. Here are a few examples:

wash hands in water that is too hot
stub toe
smash hand in door
lemon juice in eye
dad tickles feet
uncle give a bear hug
fall off bike
get frozen raspberries from freezer
stepped in a mud puddle
bumped head on cupboard

The body kids selected a message and then pulled on nerves that would be activated in the situation.

The brain had to decide which body part felt what type of signal. The brain was delighted to find out what the stimulation was that triggered the nerves.

Our other human body projects are easy to find on the Science Page.

This post is linked to:
Fourth Grade Flipper

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Tuesday Tots

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