Come to Your Senses

Cerebrum, cerebellum, brainstem, pituitary gland, and spinal cord. Prepare your class for a performance task assessment on the brain and how it works with a scripted plan that defines these terms and identifies the functions the...

As part of a unit on the chemistry of the brain, thinkers learn how chemicals work to transmit messages between individual neurons and how controlled substances impact the synaptic cleft. They do so by playing a dice-and-card game in...

For some people, the force of addiction can be as biologically compelling as the drive for food or water. High schoolers watch a video segment about Ryan, a recovering addict, and learn more about how opioids and other drugs can affect...

An octopus' tentacles are more like sticky, multipurpose tools than the simple leg-like appendages we view them as. Discover their amazing abilities, times eight, in an entertaining video. The narrator explains the senses located in each...

Neuroscientists and biologists study how we process our senses and the impact our receptors have on our food choices. The video, part of a food science series from PBS, highlights the nerves used in eating including the taste and...

Attention, sugar addicts! Here's why you can't quit the habit. Sweet taste receptors send a signal to the brain, which activates a reward system that responds by telling you to eat again. Over activating this reward system results in a...

The nose knows, and your class will know about the nose after experiencing this lesson. Nurb takes the viewer on a virtual tour of the nose, explaining its functions from smell to first-line immunity. Chloe and Nurb get sneezed out of...

As if sniffles and clogged sinuses are bad enough, everything seems to taste bland and flavorless when we are sick. Gather up a few volunteers, hit the kitchen, and try this experiment to find out if there is really truth to the idea...

Students investigate how animals adapt to use its senses to identify foods that are nutritious or noxious. They determine how they associate foods with other things such as birthdays. They discuss the role of the nervous system in the...

It seems like a simple process: we breathe in, our nose detects different scents, and our brain interprets the smell. But how does it actually work? How can something smell like vanilla to one person, but like urine to someone else?...