BRAIN LAB
Surgical Team:
(names)
_____________________________
Directions: Follow the directions below on how to construct a “brain.”
As you perform surgery, you may either answer the questions on the sheet below, or fill in
the concept map provided.
Preparation:
Collect your supplies for the “operation: on a plate. Go pick up the brain parts and a knife.
Carefully slice off a thin section of one side of your grapefruit/orange. This will become the
“stand” for your brain and will be the spot on which the brain will sit on the “operating
table”
Supplies: One Grapefruit/orange , one knife, one paper plate, two jelly
beans, one peachie-o, one piece of red licorice, one gummie worm, one regular
toothpick, Four colored toothpicks (Green/ Blue/Red/Yellow/) One
Starburst, One Gummi Saver.
Surgical Procedure:
1. The surgeon should carefully peal the skull from the brain. Try not to
puncture the thin white membranes, the meninges, which protect the
brain and spinal cord.
2. The cerebral cortex, the outer most part of the cerebrum, now is
exposed.
 What is its function?
3. Two Jelly Beans: Craft and insert your jelly beans to make two eyes.
 Describe how the eyes see in relation to the hemispheres of the
brain
4. A piece of red licorice: Cut and shape and insert the brain stem.
What behaviors does the brainstem monitor?
(Include: Medulla, Reticular system)
5. A gummie worm: Using your knife, carefully cut, shape and insert a corpus
callosum. Please do this without cutting your brain in half. Only cut down
about ½ inch.
What is the job of the corpus callosum?
6. One peachie –o and one toothpick. Directly above the brain stem attach
the orange slice as the cerebellum.
What is the function of the cerebellum?
7. Using the original cut of the corpus callosum, cut through the brain,
separating it into right and left hemispheres. Set the left hemisphere
aside.
8. Four colored toothpicks. Insert the colored toothpicks into the right
hemisphere to mark the four lobes of the brain. ( Each lobe is named for
the bones of the skull that lies above it- You may want to look at the
diagram in your note/text)
Occipital lobe- green
Frontal lobe- red
Parietal lobe-yellow
Temporal lobe- blue
What functions or behaviors accompany EACH of these lobes?
9. One Starburst. Locate where in the right hemisphere the thalamus would
be. Cut, shape and insert the Starburst as the thalamus in our “brain”.
What is the function of the Thalamus?
10. One Gummi Saver. Locate where in the right hemisphere the
hypothalamus would be. Cut the gummi saver in half, lengthwise. Cut a
lateral slot in your brain. Insert the gummi saver. It is the hypothalamus.
What is the function of the hypothalamus?
11. Once you have completed your surgery, Mrs. Nardone will examine your
brain and ask questions about the location and function of each part.
Please notify me when you are ready for my consultation. Once it has
been approved, you may eat it.
12. NOW PLEASE CLEAN UP YOUR MESS! Clean up your operating table
(desks) by throwing away the newspaper and all the brain you do not wish
to eat. There is hand cleaner and some papers towels for desk and hand
cleanup. Thank you
13. Be certain to hand in your list of completed question and this sheet when
you are done.