Brain Science Curriculum (Grades 5 & 6)

These lesson plans, for fifth- and sixth-grade students, provide innovative learning experiences that will build students' understanding of how the brain works and how brain functioning relates to behavior.Utilize these lessons in your science class to help students recognize the connections between life and the classroom.

Structure Lesson One: Geography of the Brain Students will learn/review the three major parts of the human brain, the hemispheres of the brain, where the brain is located, and its size, color, texture and weight. Lesson Two: Getting the Message Students will be introduced to neurons: what they are, what they look like, their basic parts, and the "job" (function) of each part. Using information and materials, students will build a neuron of their choice. Lesson Three: Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System Use a lesson that is designed to help students understand that the brain and the rest of the body are connected, and that communication between the two takes time. Lesson Four: Your Information Highway: How Motor Neurons Talk to Muscles After reviewing the lesson where the students made neuron models and labeled the main parts (dendrites, cell body, axon and myelin), students will be able to visualize and understand how neurons send messages from the brain to the spinal cord, to synapse, to motor neurons, which connect to muscles and make them move. This is how the nervous system communicates: "messages" in the form of electrical and chemical signals. Optional Lesson: Lissencephaly Students will be introduced to the atypical brain condition called Lissencephaly. Students will understand that this condition is not typical of the brain and will better understand how and why gyri and sulci are necessary for humans to store information. Function Lesson One: Sorting Our Senses Use a lesson that is intended to help students understand that the brain has many parts and that each part plays a significant role in how we function. The lesson focuses on how the four lobes of the cerebrum work with our senses so that we are able to function. Lesson Two: Our Senses & the Environment Students will explore how our senses respond to information from the environment. Students will see that our brain plays a major role in helping our senses to function (respond). By examining the human reaction to light and various smells (stimuli), students will see that their senses are responding to information presented by the environment. Mini Lesson: An Inside Look at Our Eyes Students will be introduced to several parts of the eye and their functions. This information will be used in the following lesson, to show how a sense organ is connected to the brain. Lesson Three: Communication: Our Senses and Our Brain Use a lesson that uses the example of the human eye to explain how our sense organs are connected to the brain. Students will create and utilize an eye model to see how the eye is connected to the brain. Lesson Four: To Think or Not to Think... Our Actions and Responses (Stroop Effect) Students will participate in the "Stroop Test," a well-known scientific activity, that can help them become more aware of their responses. They will see that some of their responses take place without any thought or concentration, while others require them to think or choose to do them. With this awareness, students will begin to understand the difference between reflexes and deliberate actions. Genetics Lesson One: Cells, Cells, and More Cells Students will be introduced to two different types of cells: plant cells and animal cells. They will review the specialized animal cell called a neuron. Although there are many other types of cells, this lesson focuses only on these three. Students will learn that each cell has parts that are unique to it, but all cells have parts in common. Lesson Two: Why We Are the Way We Are Use a lesson that is an introduction to genetics. Students will learn that genes are sets of instructions that determine traits. Lesson Three: Pairing Up Chromosomes Students will be introduced to chromosome pairs and will create their own pair, using the chromosome they constructed in lesson two. Lesson Four: Which Is It Anyway? Genes are sets of instructions that help determine certain traits. The environment determines other traits. Lesson Extension: The Long and Short of It Students will learn fun factoids about neurons, and explore the nature of neurons. Robotics Lesson One: Simple Robots Our bodies have many complex, highly interconnected bioelectrical circuits, which allow us to sense and react to changes in the environment -- thus allowing us to behave as we do. Students will observe the behavior of simple robots and then study a highly simplified sensing circuit in order to analyze its operations. Lesson Two: Human and Robot Circuits Present this lesson plan to help students to begin to understand that the networking of circuits in a robot and in a human are similar. Students will complete a Truth Table (Logic Diagram), on the pathways of the human vision system. Extension Activities: Why We See the Way We Do These extensions will show students that the brain, not the eyes, is responsible for our ability to see depth. Students will understand that each eye sees a different view and that the brain combines these two views to give us a clear and precise understanding of our surroundings. These two views travel along two "neural circuits," one from the right eye to the brain and the other from the left eye to the brain. Both of these circuits are required to see "binocular" depth. Optional Mini Lesson: Disorder Diagnosis Present this lesson plan to introduce students to a few disorders that involve networking within the body. Students will understand that these conditions are not typical, and that they cause problems for people with these diseases.

Scientist Teacher Education Partnership Program (STEPP)

Brain Science Curriculum
Grades 3 and 4
Brain Science Curriculum
Grades 5 and 6

Scientists at the Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School in Waltham, Massachusetts, in collaboration with local elementary school educators and administrators have developed a neurobehavioral science education curriculum for use with children in grades 3-6. The Scientist Teacher Education Partnership Program (STEPP) began in 1998 through a grant funded by the Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) program of the Division of Clinical Research of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR/NIH).

The goal of the STEPP project is to enhance science literacy by providing elementary and middle school students with innovative learning experiences that will establish the foundation for broad, socially connected understanding of how the brain works and how brain functioning relates to behavior. In designing the curriculum we have taken advantage of the environment and resources of the Shriver Center, a center of interdisciplinary scientific research training, and clinical service.

Funding provided by NIH-NCRR, Grant # 1R25RR13433, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School and private donors.
© Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2005.