Unit 3: The Senses
S
Essential Questions
Day 1: Sensations
S Required Readings:
S 9.1
S Learning Objectives:
S Describe the roles of sensory receptors, neurons, nerves, and
the cerebral cortex in sensations
S Name the five basic types of sensory receptors
S Compare the mechanisms of projection and adaptation of
sensations
Starter
S There are 5 different bags on the back lab benches
S Use your sense of hearing and touch to try to guess what is
in the bag
S Time: 10 minutes
Activity 1
S 1. Place one finger in the middle [ROOM TEMPERATURE]
container and leave in the water for 15 seconds.
S 2. Place the finger from the middle container into the container with
cooler [COLD] water. How does that finger feel? Warmer or colder?
S 3. Move the finger from cooler water into the middle container; wait
30 seconds. How does that finger feel? Does it change over the
course of 30 seconds? Does it feel warmer or colder than it did
originally?
S 4. Move the finger from the middle container into the warmer
[HOT] water. How does that finger feel? Warmer or colder
S Time: 10 minutes
Activity 2
S What do you think would happen if you changed the order
between the cups (i.e. hot to room to cold? Hot to cold?
Cold to hot)?
S Try it out after you have written a hypothesis
S What does this activity tell you about our thermoreceptors
and how sensations are interpreted by our nerves?
S Time: 10 minutes
Activity 3
S Your group will be given one of the sensory receptors:
S Thermoreceptor, mechanoreceptor, pain receptor,
chemoreceptor, or photoreceptor
S Create a 6-segment story board for your sensory receptor
S When completed, you will present it to the rest of the class
S Time: 45 minutes
Closing
S What happens when turn off the lights in a room?
S How/why does this happen? (Think about what happens to
your pupils, cones (colour receptors) and rods (night vision
receptors)
S How long does it take you to adapt to the dark?
S Time: 5 minutes
Day 2
S Required Readings:
S 9.2
S Learning Objectives:
S Name and describe the locations of receptors involved in
sensations of heat, cold, touch, pressure, and pain
S Name and describe the location of receptors involved in
maintaining posture and muscle tone
S Explain the basis of referred pain
Starter
S Take shoes off
S On the balance discs, do the following:
S Balance with two feet
S Balance with two feet with eyes closed
S Balance on one foot, then the other
S Balance on one foot with eyes closed
S What do you notice?
S Time: 15 minutes
Activity 1
S We will complete the “Our Sense of Touch” experiment in
your lab groups
S Once you have finished the first part, go on to design your
own experiment. Ok your idea with me before you
investigate
S Time: 60 minutes
Closing
S How can our touch receptors be masked?
S What does this mean for real life applications?
S Think about people’s jobs, people who are blind, activities you
do, etc.
S Which part of your body has the most touch receptors?
S Which part of your body has the least touch receptors?
S Why is this?
S Time: 10 minutes
Homework
S Our sense of touch lab – October 2
S Read Section 9.3
S Test – Friday October 4
Day 3
S Required Readings:
S 9.3
S Learning Objectives:
S Describe the location, structure, and function of taste, hearing,
vision, and equilibrium receptors
S Describe the structure of the eye and the functions of its parts
Video: The Senses Overview
Starter
S What are the 4 special senses?
S What type of receptors are used to respond to stimuli for the
4 special senses?
S Time: 5 minutes
Activity 1
S What are the receptors for taste?
S Draw a picture that shows where sweet, bitter, salty, and
sour tastes are perceived on the tongue
S Time: 10 minutes
Activity 2
S Explain what happens
as the person is
smelling the flower
S Time: 5 minutes
Video: How do we hear a
sound?
Activity 3
S Create a flow chart to show how we hear a sound
S Time: 15 minutes
Sound waves strike the
tympanic membrane
Tympanic membrane
vibrates, causes vibration
of the stapes
Impulses by the
hair cells
Vestibulocochlear nerve carries impulses to
the hearing centers of the temporal lobes
where the sensation is interpreted
Oscillatory movement of
perilymph causes vibrations
in the vestibular and basilar
membranes
Activity 4
S Draw a picture to show how an image is formed by the eye
S Time: 5 minutes
Activity 5
S Work through Lab#8: Human Senses with your lab group
S You don’t need to do #2D as we did it in the last lesson
S Answer the questions as you go along
S Hand in on Friday
S Time: 45 minutes
Closing
S Sit with your group and discuss any new or interesting
findings from the senses lab you just completed
S Time: 5 minutes
Homework
S Read section 9.4
S 2 point discrimination lab - Wednesday
S Human Senses lab - Friday
S Test – Friday
Day 4
S Required Readings:
S 9.4
S Learning Objectives:
S Describe the common disorders of hearing and vision