Me & My Brain
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
Dr. Seuss, Oh The Places You'll Go!
Because of their brains, students are identified as gifted and place in Apogee. But why? How does the brain work? How does it help to shape us into who we are?
Students will be introduced to the mysteries of the mind, learn about the structure and function of the brain, gain insight into memory, intelligence and emotion, observe and analyze animal behavior, research a brain disorder and design and conduct psychology experiments.
Ultimately, we want to learn how our brain creates our sense of self, and how we can become the person we most want to be.
Brain Structures Projects
Optical Illusions
http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/illusions.aspx
Phrenology
Blank brain for phrenology assignment
Brain Structures & Functions Presentation
Neurotransmission Presentation
Neurotransmission Trading Cards
Helpful Links:
General Brain Structures/Anatomy & Functions
HOPES Brain Tutorial (Stanford) https://hopes.stanford.edu/sites/hopes/files/brain.swf
Brain Structures & Functions (Bryn Mawr) http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/Structure1.html
The Brain from Top to Bottom (Memory, language, emotions, sleep, dreams, consciousness, more, McGill University) http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/avance.php
Neuroscience for Kids http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
How to Make a Brain Model http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chmodel.html
Brain Info http://braininfo.rprc.washington.edu/
BrainMaps.org http://brainmaps.org/index.php?
The Secret Life of the Brain http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/index.html
The Brainwaves Center http://www.brainwaves.com
NOVA’s How Does the Brain Work? http://video.pbs.org/video/1757221034
Parts of the brain used in sleep http://www.livestrong.com/article/78256-parts-brain-produce-dreams/
Parts of the brain used in smell http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/smell.htm
Neurotransmission Links:
How Neurotransmission Works http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih2/addiction/activities/lesson2_neurotransmission.htm
Neurons & Neurotransmission http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/neurons_intro/neurons_intro.php
Really Cool Stuff
Henry Markram at TED http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS3wMC2BpxU
Richard St. John, 8 to Be Great http://www.richardstjohn.com/content/talk/talk01.php?m=5
Brain Quotes
A Fox entered the house of an actor and, rummaging through all his properties, came upon a Mask, an admirable imitation of a human head. He placed his paws on it and said, "What a beautiful head! Yet it is of no value, as it entirely lacks brains." Aesop (from Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Mask)
The seat of the soul and the control of voluntary movement - in fact, of nervous functions in general, - are to be sought in the heart. The brain is an organ of minor importance. And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart. Aristotle (from De motu animalium, 4th century B.C.)
Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears. Hippocrates (about 400 B.C.)
The human brain, then, is the most complicated organization of matter that we know. Isaac Asimov (from the foreword to The Three-Pound Universe by J. Hooper and D. Teresi, 1986
The modern geography of the brain has a deliciously antiquated feel to it -- rather like a medieval map with the known world encircled by terra incognito where monsters roam. David Bainbridge (from The Strange Anatomy of the Brain, New Scientist, January 26, 2008)
Sports make you grunt and smell. Stay in school, use your brains. Be a thinker, not a stinker. Apollo Creed (character played by Carl Weathers in the movie Rocky, 1976)
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us. Francis Crick (from What Mad Pursuit, 1988)
When we deal with brain science, we are dealing with the organ that makes us unique individuals, that gives us our personality, memories, emotions, dreams, creative abilities, and at times our sinister selves. Ruth Fischback and Gerald Fischbach (from Hard Science, Hard Choices by Sandra J. Ackerman, New York: Dana Press, 2006)
The brain is the great receiving and distributing reservoir of vital electricity, just as the heart is the receiving and distributing reservoir of the blood. Edward B. Foote (from Medical Common Sense, 1866)
The human brain is estimated to have about a hundred billion nerve cells, two million miles of axons, and a million billion synapses, making it the most complex structure, natural or artificial, on earth. Tim Green, Stephen F. Heinemann and Jim F. Gusella (from a paper in Neuron, vol. 420, page 427, 1998)
The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception. Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.)