TED-Ed
How Does Your Brain Respond to Pain?
Zap! Ouch! That hurts! But why? And how come people don't experience or respond to pain in the same way? Take a journey on the sensing pathway, from your nociceptors, along your nerves, up your spinal cord, to neurons and glial, through...
Curated OER
Reaction Time 2: Zap!
Students explore critical thinking by conducting a reaction time experiment. In this human brain lesson, students utilize a timed Internet worksheet activity to research how fast their brain works when answering questions. Students share...
Curated OER
Making a Brain: Aritifical Neural Network
Students explore how the brain works. In this nervous system lesson, students create a network of "neurons" to simulate how the nervous system and the brain work together.
Poetry4kids
How to Write an Alliteration Poem
Learners follow five steps to compose an alliteration poem. They choose one consonant and brainstorm as many nouns, verbs, and adjectives they can think of to create rhyming sentences that come together in a poetic fashion.
Curated OER
Nervous System
Get to know the body's central nervous system through an engaging game of nervous system telephone. But this isn't your average game of telephone. Here, pupils must find a way to communicate a message to the brain without speaking....
Curated OER
Brain Awareness Week Lessons
Students explore the human brain and nervous system. In this brain awareness lesson, students examine specific terms with regards to the human brain. Students discover the brain's structure and function and how it functions as the body's...
Curated OER
Left and Right Brains
Students research the part of the brain known as the corpus callosum. The part of the brain that connects the left and right brain, students investigate its functions and how data passes from one side to another.
Curated OER
All About the Brain
Students use eggs, cooking oil, foam balls and more to create a simulation of the brain and record what happens in each step. In this brain lesson plan, students learn about protecting the brain, the brain's ability to learn, and reflexes.
Curated OER
Remember This?
Students investigate the mechanics of an fMRI and the properties of neurons. In this biology lesson, students analyze the way the brain works by performing tests in the neurons in the brain. This is all done theoretically.
PBS
Color Code
Don't let your brain play tricks on you! Learners test brain reaction rates while it is receiving multiple stimuli. They time each other reading a set of color words written in different colors and again when they are written in black....
University of Minnesota
Dendritic Spines Lab
This is your brain on drugs ... literally! Your neuroscientists-in-training examine the evidence of drug use on the human brain and how neurons change their connectivity when altered by drugs. They then work together to create testing...
Curated OER
Sheep Brain Dissection
Young scholars study the brain and examine what the functions of the major functions are. In this investigative lesson plan students dissect a sheep's brain and note the similarities and differences between it and a humans...
Curated OER
A Multiple Intelligence Approach to the Physiology of the Brain and How Middle School Students Learn
Students draw a poster of a lateral view of the brain in order to label the different lobes of the brain. They examine what causes some people to be more musically intelligent than others. They dissect a cow's brain and label the...
University of Minnesota
Memory Box
Teachers encourage using memory tricks, but do they actually work? Scholars test word association in a short yet engaging activity. They use 10 seconds to memorize as many items as possible and determine if they are more successful if...
Curated OER
Disorders of the Brain
Students, in groups, conduct research about a specific disorder of the brain, create a character study of a person with that brain disorder, and then present the information to the rest of the class.
Curated OER
Targeting an Action
Students explore how the brain how the brain infers the position of a moving target. They investigate how the brain can fine-tune its motor control over the muscle groups that will perform the intended action. Students participate in a...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: Personal Phrenology Chart During Reading Activity
Phrenology, the belief that parts of your brain control certain aspects of your personality, is described in Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science. While we now know much more about the brain, learners use this...
University of Minnesota
Heads or Tails
How exactly does touch help us identify items? Students test this question by feeling a coin without moving their fingers and trying to determine if it is heads or tails. They test their accuracy by rubbing their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
How Do I Act Like a Friend?
Familiar puppets set the stage for a thoughtful discussion about friendship. To show what they know, scholars role-play scenarios. Peers offer a thumbs up when they view positive character traits exhibit good friend behavior.
Exploratorium
Far Out Corners
Construct a three-dimensional optical illusion when your class is exploring vision and how the eye and brain work together. Three concave corners are mounted inside of a black box, but as a light is shined upon them, they appear to be...
Plum Tree
Teaching Your Child How to “Stress Press”
Are you or your scholars feeling stressed? Use the coping skill resource, Stress Press, to relieve the feeling that may be growing inside you when a big test or presentation is on its way.
Missouri Department of Elementary
How We Are Alike And Different
Scholars develop social awareness by exploring the concept of similarities and differences. Learners examine two beverages and use a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences. They tally each item to identify if they are more...
Curated OER
How We Perceive Movement, Depth and Illusions
Middle schoolers examine how depth perception works through a class experiment. They design and perform their own experiment that investigates visual illusions.
Curated OER
Puppet on a String: An Engaging Look at Movement
Students examine how muscles can work together with joints. For this movement lesson students use a marionette to observe how muscles work.