MAKING NEUROSCIENCE FUN
BEHAVING BRAIN
(Grade 5)
♥SLIDE #1: INTRODUCTION
Good Morning (Afternoon)!
My name is __________ and I am a Neuroscience student (or you can say you study Neuroscience – or you
are a Neuroscientist) at Johns Hopkins University.
Question: Does anyone know or can anyone guess what neuroscience is (or what a Neuroscientist studies?
Let’s look at our little friend up here.
Question: Do you know what this is a picture of?
This is a cartoon of a brain. This is a brain that is having fun – because this little brain is
skateboarding.
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system – which includes the brain. If you study the nervous system
you are a Neuroscientist.
(Next, tells the students why you are visiting them. I usually say something like this…..)
I am here because I LOVE NEUROSCIENCE and I wanted to share some things I know about the nervous
system with you.
♥SLIDE #2: NERVOUS SYSTEM
Question: What is the nervous system?
It is your brain, your spinal cord, and all of your nerves. Here is a drawing of what your nervous
system would look like if we removed all of your skin, muscles, bones and organs.
Your nervous system is connected to every part of your body. It is what makes your body work.
There is so much to know about the nervous system…..
♥SLIDE #3: TODAY’S TALK
Today I am going to talk to you about how your brain controls your behaviors and how the way that
you behave changes your brain.
I have titled my presentation, “YOUR BEHAVING BRAIN: MAKING YOU ‘WORK’ ”.
♥ SLIDE #4: BRAIN CONTROLS BEHAVIORS
You already know what you brain is – but do you know that your brain controls almost everything you
do?
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The same way that a pilot controls all parts of a plane - your brain controls all aspects of your
behavior.
SLIDE #5: WHAT ARE BEHAVIORS?
Question: What are behaviors?
Everything that your body does is a behavior.
When you laugh, smile, blink your eyes, breath you are behaving.
When you think, feel sad, or scared you are behaving.
Behaviors can be divided up – or characterized - a lot of ways.
They can be divided into behaviors you can see (overt behaviors) and behaviors you can not
see (covert behaviors).
♥SLIDE #6: OVERT BEHAVIORS
Question: What are some behaviors that you can see?
Overt behaviors:
Behaviors that anyone can “see” and usually involve movements and occur outside of the
body – like reading a book, dancing, skateboarding, skiing and swimming – these are all overt
behaviors.
These also involve things like sweating and crying – secretions from your body.
♥SLIDE #7: COVERT BEHAVIORS
Question: What are some behaviors that you can NOT see?
Covert behaviors:
Behaviors that can’t be seen or perceived by others and usually occur inside of the body (inside
of our skin).
These are behaviors that can involve your senses – like hearing a song, tasting chocolate cake,
sensing hot vs. cold, seeing a sunset.
These are behaviors that can involve higher order functioning – like learning, memorizing,
feeling emotions, thinking.
Some covert behaviors can be inferred by others either through movements or through
byproducts – like answering an exam questions infers that you either learned and memorized or
that you guess correctly, when you see someone spit you can infer that their was secretion of a
salivary gland, when you see a smile you can infer happiness – but is that Grinch smile a happy or
an evil one?
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Inference is not always accurate.
Question: Is the Grinch feeling “happy” or is the Grinch feeling “evil”?
Behavior, in a very basic sense, is physiological a response.
SLIDE #8: WHAT ARE BEHAVIORS?
Behaviors can also be divided or characterized into behaviors that help to keep you alive and
behaviors that are fun or intellectually stimulating.
♥SLIDE #9: BEHAVIORS THAT KEEP US ALIVE
Question: What are some behaviors that keep you alive?
These include things like…
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pumping blood throughout or body – so our cells get the oxygen and nutrients it needs
drinking – so our body has fluids
eating – so our body has energy
sleeping – so our bodies can repair and rejuvenate
going to the bathroom – so our body gets rid of waste
♥SLIDE #10: BEHAVIORS THAT ARE JUST FUN
Question: What are some behaviors that you do for fun?
These include things like…
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playing games (video, chess, etc.)
sports
arts and crafts
reading
movies
being with friends and family
♥SLIDE #11: BRAIN AREAS THAT CONTROL BEHAVIOR
Different parts of your nervous system control different behaviors.
Some behaviors use a lot of parts of your brain.
(Here you can talk about some of the things that the different lobes of the brain do.)
♥SLIDE #12: SOME BEHAVIORS ARE AUTOMATIC
Some of the behaviors that keep you alive are automatic – you don’t have to do anything to make
them work. Your brain takes care of everything.
Your cardiovascular system pumps blood in your arteries and back from your veins.
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Your respiratory system gives you oxygen.
Your gastrointestinal system digests your food to give you energy.
Your thermoregulation system maintains your constant body temperature.
♥SLIDE #13: AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Automatic behaviors are controlled by your autonomic nervous system (ANS).
This system is made up of parts of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves coming out from your brain
and spinal cord.
It is divided into the parasympathetic system or rest and digest system.
This system slows your body down – decrease heart rate, respiration, start gastrointestinal system
so you can store energy.
The other part of the ANS is the sympathetic system or fight or flight system.
This system speeds up your body – increase heart rate, respiration, stop gastrointestinal system
so you can get blood to your muscles so you can move.
♥SLIDE #14: ANS DEMO
Demo: ANS ACTIVATION
First, teach the kids how to find there radial pulse – use 2 fingers on the inner side of the wrist
towards the thumb.
Have them count for 15 seconds.
Next, get them set up so they can jog in place (or run laps).
Have them take their pulse for 15 seconds.
It should have increased – ask them if they told their hearts to pump faster…..of course not – it was
done automatically by their ANS!!!
When we run, we need our heart to pump blood to our muscles so they can work. Your muscles “tell”
your brain that they are working and your ANS makes your heart pump faster.
♥SLIDE #15: THERMOSTAT ANALOGY
Some of the behaviors that keep you alive work like a thermostat.
A thermostat is set at a certain temperature.
There is a detector that measures temperature.
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When the temperature gets too low, the heater is turned on.
♥SLIDE #16: HYPOTHALAMUS
Your hypothalamus, a very tiny area at the base of your brain, gets information for a lot of different
behaviors that help to keep you alive.
It gets information about your energy supplies, water, temperature, sleep and even social needs.
It then sends out signals to other parts of your brain so that you do things to alleviate or get rid of
your needs….you get food if you are hungry, water if you are thirsty, sleep if you are tired, put on
a coat if you are cold or find a friend if you need a hug.
♥SLIDE #17: MOTOR SYSTEMS
Most of our behaviors involve some kind of movements – so our motor control systems of our brain
are activated.
♥SLIDE#18: INFORMATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
In order to survive, we need to be able to get information from our environment – the world around us.
To do this, we need our sensory systems.
With our visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, and olfactory systems we are able to see,
hear, feel, taste, and smell the things that are going on in the world around us.
(There actually is one more system….see if anyone knows about the vestibular system. This is
the system that gives us information about our bodies in space.)
♥SLIDE #19: LEARNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
In order to survive, we need to be able to learn about our environment and remember what we have
learned.
If we are a zebra, we have to learn that lions are the enemy or we will be eaten.
If we are a squirrel, we need to learn where the trees are in the forest that have nuts so we can
eat.
If we are children, we have to learn in our classes so we can grow up and have a job so we can
buy food to eat and a house to live in.
♥SLIDE #20: LEARNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
When we are children, we have to learn in our classes so we can grow up and have a job so we can
buy food to eat and a house to live in.
♥SLIDE #21: LIMBIC SYSTEM
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Learning and memory are two behaviors that are controlled by the limbic system.
The limbic system is a bunch of areas in our brain, like the hippocampus, parts of our cortex, and
the amygdala.
Scientists are not really sure how this part of the brain works – but we know it is a very important
part of your brain and that learning and memory are very important behaviors that help to keep us
alive.
♥SLIDE #22: ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLEXITY
As our environment gets more complex, so do our behaviors.
Cave men didn’t have computers, so they didn’t have to know how to type, or how to write
sentences, or how to use a mouse to get into different computer programs….we do.
♥SLIDE #23: EVOLUTION OF BEHAVIORS
As we learned quicker and easier ways to do things, we had more time to do other behaviors that
didn’t just involve keeping us alive – but things that were fun.
We can grow to the grocery store and buy our vegetables instead of having to grow all the
vegetables we eat.
We have running water, so we can use hoses instead of buckets to get the water we need.
♥SLIDE #24: FUN BEHAVIORS
Fun behaviors allow us to use our minds and be creative – use strategies.
♥SLIDE #25: HIGHER COGNITIVE FUNCTION
Fun behaviors use what is called “higher cognitive functioning” and this uses our cerebral cortex.
Question: Does anyone remember why the cerebral cortex is all bumpy?
Because as our behaviors got more complex, we needed more cerebral cortex to control those
behaviors.
We have to fit our brains into our skulls – so the cortex started folding over on itself.
Demo: Do the paper and film container demonstration.
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Take a half sheet of paper.
Try to put it into a film container – it doesn’t fit.
Scrunch up the paper and show the students the bumps on it.
Stuff it into the film container – now it fits.
That is how you get a big brain into a small skull.
Here is the brain of a rat. Notice how smooth the cortex is…
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Fun behaviors need a lot of cortex – so which animal do you think has more fun behaviors?
SLIDE #26: BEHAVIOR AND BRAIN RELATIONSHIP
The brain controls behavior and behaviors change the brain.
We say that the interaction between the brain and behavior is reciprocal – your brain controls your
behaviors and your behaviors change your nervous system.
♥SLIDE #27: BEHAVIOR AND BRAIN RELATIONSHIP
Your behaviors change your brain and make you unique.
Everything that you do, see, feel, taste, touch, hear and think is not only received, processed and
stored by your nervous system, but it also changes your nervous system. This makes your
nervous system unique. This makes your nervous system you.
According to (one of my favorite professors at UCLA) a very famous professor at UCLA - Dr.
Arnold Schiebel - you are your nervous system - so you nervous system is you. Everything you
do changes your nervous system and makes it unique.
♥SLIDE #28: WHAT ARE BEHAVIORS?
Behaviors are everything that you do!!!
♥SLIDE #29: BRAINS ROLE IN BEHAVIOR
The nervous system receives, processes, stores information and produces all of your behaviors.
***This is one of the most important facts about the nervous system!!!
Receives - Everything that you do, see, feel, taste, touch, hear is received by your nervous system.
Processes - The nervous system then “processes” that information in relation to other information it
has encountered.
Stores - The nervous system then “stores” the information based on a number of factors and in
multiple places.
Produces - The nervous system then “produces” a physiological response (a BEHAVIOR).
….so your produces your behaviors that make you unique and make you work.
♥SLIDE #30: BEHAVING BRAIN
Well, that is all I wanted to tell you today about YOUR BEHAVING BRAIN.
I have enjoyed talking to you today, and I hope that you have enjoyed hearing about the neat things
that your nervous systems can do.
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REMEMBER… YOUR BRAIN CONTROLS ALL OF YOUR BEHAVIORS AND MAKES YOU
“WORK”
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