going to learn about going on in your brain. Now we’re what’s Please take some good notes from this PowerPoint, because at the end of this session, use your notes for a Brain Quiz Show with prizes! you’ll Slide #8: The Brain Ask: a cool picture of the brain looking at it from the side. Anyone know why it has so Here’s many folds? (Answer: Those folds create more surface area for you to think, in that tight compartment called your skull. If we laid out those folds flat, your brain would be as large as a newspaper opened up.) Slide #9: The Brain Say: So a diagram of a brain looking down from the top of your head. here’s Now down deeper and take a peek. let’s drill Slide #10: A Dense Network of Neurons Say: The brain, when you drill down deeper, is actually a dense network of brain cells, or neurons, that look like a circuit board on the computer. Now drill down even further to look at just one neuron. let’s Slide #11: Parts of Neuron See Option at end of Say: lesson for additional The diagram in front of you has a picture of one brain cell, a neuron, with its parts labeled. activity on the brain There are several important parts. First, at the These tentacle-like structures reach out to receive dendrites. let’s look chemical signals from other brain cells. Just like when you receive a tossed ball, you reach out hands to someone else and you send a signal of readiness. In a similar fashion, the brain cells have their own arms reaching out. These dendrites change the chemical signal to an electrical one, which travels down the cell to the cell body. Next you can see the which receives the signal and houses information. cell body, Then, there's It's a long cable that carries the electrical signal from the cell body an axon. out to the space between cells. There, the electrical impulse becomes a chemical impulse to cross the space (synapse) to the next neuron.
See Option at end of lesson for additional activity on the brain Now we’re going to learn about what’s going on in your brain. Please take some good notes from this PowerPoint, because at the end of this session, you’ll use your notes for a Brain Quiz Show with prizes! Slide #8: The Brain Ask: Here’s a cool picture of the brain looking at it from the side. Anyone know why it has so many folds? (Answer: Those folds create more surface area for you to think, in that tight compartment called your skull. If we laid out those folds flat, your brain would be as large as a newspaper opened up.) Slide #9: The Brain Say: So here’s a diagram of a brain looking down from the top of your head. Now let’s drill down deeper and take a peek. Slide #10: A Dense Network of Neurons Say: The brain, when you drill down deeper, is actually a dense network of brain cells, or neurons, that look like a circuit board on the computer. Now let’s drill down even further to look at just one neuron. Slide #11: Parts of Neuron Say: The diagram in front of you has a picture of one brain cell, a neuron, with its parts labeled. There are several important parts. First, let’s look at the dendrites. These tentacle-like structures reach out to receive chemical signals from other brain cells. Just like when you receive a tossed ball, you reach out hands to someone else and you send a signal of readiness. In a similar fashion, the brain cells have their own arms reaching out. These dendrites change the chemical signal to an electrical one, which travels down the cell to the cell body. Next you can see the cell body, which receives the signal and houses information. Then, there's an axon. It's a long cable that carries the electrical signal from the cell body out to the space between cells. There, the electrical impulse becomes a chemical impulse to cross the space (synapse) to the next neuron.