Our Βeautiful Μind

Can cats actually see in the dark? Do snakes really smell with their tongues? What sense is associated most with memory? How do optical illusions “trick” the brain?

During this course, students discover the 5 senses and explore the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and the sensory organs. They’ll learn about sensory abilities that humans don’t have, like magnetoreception and sonar navigation, and discuss how the brain’s perception mechanisms turn sensory information into an organism’s experience of its surroundings.

By employing the scientific method, students work together to answer fascinating questions related to sensation, perception, and the brain.

Learning objectives:

• Learn how physical and chemical signals from the environment are translated into neural impulses in the body.

• Understand the use of models in biology and how these are like and unlike what they represent, and create biological models for the key parts of the sensory systems of the body.

• Comprehend the journey of information through the body from the sensation of an external stimulus all the way to the perception of it in the brain.

• Use the scientific method to investigate questions related to the body’s use of the five senses and design an experiment from beginning to end.