Unit Overview
In Mosa Mack’s Nervous System unit, students are led through a progression of three inquiry lessons that focus on how information that organisms receive from the outside world travels through the nervous system and results in different responses.
- Lesson 1
Solve: Stimulus Mystery + Vocabulary Mind Map
Students contextualize Nervous System vocabulary in a mind map before helping Mosa Mack solve the mystery of why a bat is unable to catch his prey. By the end of The Solve,students discover that information from a stimulus travels through the nervous system in a particular way, and if any part of this is disrupted, the whole chain falls apart. (75 mins)
- Lesson 2
Make: Lab Stations: Experience the Nervous System
Students explore a series of stations that experiment with the nervous system in action. Using their vocabulary mind maps, students practice explaining what is happening with each station. Once complete, students draw a visual model that details the nervous system response. (150 mins)
- Lesson 3
Engineer: Engineer a Solution to a Nervous System Problem
Students design a solution for a nervous system malfunction, such as: only being able to see half of an image due to brain damage (hemispatial neglect), carpal tunnel due to damage to motor neurons, Multiple Sclerosis due to myelin sheath destruction, or spinal injury. (150 mins)