LESSON PLANS : The Body Curriculum Unit (Early Childhood) Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to identify body differences. Students will discover that the body is unique by exploring movement and the five senses. Students will discuss and recognise the importance of keeping the body healthy. Focus Questions: Why is our body important? What can our bodies do? How can we look after our bodies? Content: Our body is important because it is unique, the only one of its kind. Our body can move and has five senses, hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. There is a special part in our body that lets us think and have feelings. This is the brain. We look after our body by eating healthy food, exercising, resting and keeping it clean. Methodology: Do - Talk - Record Learning Experiences: * In pairs, students look at each other for differences, e.g. eye colour, hair colour, body shape, height, etc. * As a class, talk about and list on the board all the differences. - Teacher explains that we are all different because we have different parents and come from different places. * Individually using different paper, pens, pencils, etc. students make a picture or a collage of themselves to take home. * Take students outside and ask them to demonstrate all the different ways the body can move, e.g. run, jump, skip, roll, hop, slide, crawl, spin, fast, slow etc. * In small groups, ask students to think about and make a movement sequence, that is joining a variety of movements together. - Give them time to practise and then show the class. - Groups practise every day and then at the end of the week invite parents to watch. * Pick a song to play to the class. Ask the students to listen. - What did we do just then? E.g. listened, heard, felt the vibrations and rhythm and enjoyed. - How did we hear? E.g. ears, brain. Teacher Note: Tell students that it is very important to keep our ears and nose clean so that we can hear properly. We need to blow our nose often and not sniff. * As a class, ask students to close their eyes. Wait for a minute and ask them what they saw. Now ask students to open their eyes and list on the board all the things they can see, e.g. objects, people, colours, etc. - Ask students what we see with, e.g. eyes and brain. Teacher Note: Tell students that we need to look after our eyes and keep clean by washing often. Teacher Note: Collect a variety of different foods for children 77 to touch, smell and taste, e.g. bush foods, fruit, bread, biscuits, cheese, nuts, snack packs, etc. Put these objects in separate bags that students can t see through. The idea is to get students to separately use the different senses, feeling and smelling. To do this students will feel some of the objects and smell others and try to guess what they are. At the end they get to eat everything, so collect plenty. * As a class, students brainstorm how we keep ourselves healthy, e.g. eating healthy food, exercising often, sleeping for at least 8 hours at night and keeping clean, e.g. washing our bodies, face, blowing noses, playing etc. - In small groups, students make a collage of healthy living. Hang these in the classroom and invite parents and the community to come and look. Resources: Materials for students section, pages 127-131. Evaluation: Through identification, exploration, discussion and illustration, students will demonstrate an understanding of body differences, its senses and the importance of keeping it healthy.
LESSON PLANS : The Body Curriculum Unit (Middle Primary) Learning Outcomes: Students will construct a model of the body, to understand and recognise major body systems and what they do. Focus Questions: What are the basic parts of the body and what do they do? Content: The major systems of the body are the skeletal - (gives the body its shape), central nervous (controls body function and movement), respiratory (breathing), circulatory - (moves blood around the body) and digestive (eats and absorbs food and water and excretes waste products). Using a variety of activities, the students will build a body doll of their own that will identify these systems, the major body organs, and what these systems and organs do. Methodology: Do - Talk - Record Learning Experiences: * Students trace each other onto large pieces of paper to be used as a body model. * As a class, brainstorm all the different parts of the body, discussing individual differences, e.g. size, shape, colour, etc. - Write the body parts on the board and discuss each part using a demonstration body doll. * Tell students that over the next few lessons they will be adding body parts to their body model. - The students can now start their own model by putting eyes, ears, nose, mouth (be sure to include teeth), and hair on their body model. THE SKELETON * Hand out Skeleton work sheet and ask students to copy and draw the bones onto their body model. Pages 83-89. THE BRAIN (Central Nervous System) * As a class, talk about the following: - Your brain is your body s main control centre, helping you breathe, move, speak and think. - Your brain is connected to the rest of your body by your spinal cord. - Your brain receives information from the rest of your body which it uses to help you see, hear, feel, taste, smell and keep your balance. * Hand out the Brain Cut Out sheet and get students to work independently scrunching up pieces of grey crepe paper and sticking them onto the Brain Cut Out. This can then be stuck onto their body model in the correct place. Page 92. THE WIND PIPE and LUNGS (Respiratory System) * Teacher explains to the class that the wind pipe connects the mouth and nose to the lungs and that air travels in and out of the lungs through the wind pipe. * Students use toilet roll holders or rolled up paper, etc. as the wind pipe and two balloons as lungs and add these to their body in the correct place. Teacher Note: Tell students that the skeleton gives the body its shape. Resources: Brain Cut Out sheet, grey crepe paper, scissors, glue. Resources: Balloons, tubes, paper, rolls, glue. 78
Learning Experiences:... cont d... THE HEART THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM THE RIB CAGE * As a class, explain that the heart acts like a large pump to move blood around the body. The blood carries lots of good things for the body, especially oxygen. It can also carry bad things, e.g. viruses, drugs, and that is when we can get sick. * Hand out the Heart Cut Out. Page 93. - Students cut out the heart, scrunch up red crepe paper and stick it onto the Heart Cut Out to make a lifelike part. They can then stick the heart onto their model in the correct place. - Students can then use pipe cleaners or paper as arteries to show how blood can travel to the brain. If time permits the students could use red pieces of paper to stick on the arteries to show the blood carrying the oxygen. * As a class, talk about the path that food takes from going into your mouth and out your bottom or anus. - Start with the: Mouth - the teeth chew the food into small bits, the more chewing the better so we can swallow it easily; Food pipe or oesophagus - the munched up food goes through this pipe to get to the stomach; Stomach - holds the food, makes it mushy and gets it ready for the intestines; Intestines - are like a long tube that the food goes through and this is where the all of the food we eat and the water we drink gets into our blood to be taken all over our bodies. - Students roll up some coloured paper to use for the food pipe and stick it onto their model. - Hand out two Stomach work sheets to each student for them to cut out. Students then colour them, partly staple them together leaving a hole to stuff them with paper. Page 94. - Repeat this process for the intestines. Page 95. Teacher Note: By using cutting out, stuffing, colouring in and sticking, we are giving students the opportunity to develop different motor skills and give their models some dimensions. * Ask students to feel their rib cage. - Ask them: What can you feel? Is it soft or hard? Why do you think it is there? Tell students that the rib cage protects internal organs, e.g. heart and lungs. * Students use white pipe cleaners or strips of paper to create a set of ribs to add to their bodies. * Students add these parts to their body models. Resources: Heart Cut Out, red crepe paper, red pipe cleaners, glue. Resources: Stomach and Intestines Cut Outs, rolled up paper or toilet paper for the food pipe. Resources: White paper or pipe cleaners, glue. Evaluation: Through discussion and fine motor skill activities, e.g. cutting, pasting and colouring to make their own body models, students will demonstrate an understanding of major body systems and what they do. 79
LESSON PLANS : The Body Curriculum Unit (Upper Primary) Learning Outcomes: Students will investigate how the respiratory, digestive, circulatory, and central nervous systems work and how they are linked. Focus Questions: How do substances travel throughout the body? Content: The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, drugs and any other substances, travel through the body using combinations of the respiratory, digestive and circulatory systems. The circulatory system is the one that links these systems to the brain and the central nervous system. Methodology: Do - Talk - Record Learning Experiences: * Tell students that everything we put into the body affects the way the body works. - Students brainstorm how this happens, e.g. breathing eating drinking, heart, lungs, blood, brain, drugs, good, bad, etc. - Sort ideas into lists of good and bad things and body organs or systems. - As a class, talk about the lists and why students have placed things where they are. Teacher Note: Tell students that all substances travel through the body via the blood. The things we eat and drink get into the blood via the stomach and intestines. The things we breathe in get into the blood via the lungs. All of these substances get into our brain and the central nervous system via the blood. * Give each student a balloon and ask them to blow the balloon up as much as they can with a single breath and tie them. - Talk about what happened, e.g. breathed in through the mouth and nose, air travelled through the wind pipe and into the lungs. We used our diaphragm muscle to push the air out of our lungs, up the wind pipe, out through the mouth and into the balloon. - As a class, students hold their balloon, compare the sizes of the balloons and line themselves in order by balloon size, smallest to largest. Talk about what the line looks like and write students responses onto balloon shaped cards and place up on the walls. Teacher Note: Tell students the reason that balloons are different sizes is because of strength or size of lungs due to age, fitness, gender, health, sickness, smoking, etc. Teacher Note: Tell students that when people smoke, the poisons in the smoke cause damage to all of the parts of the lungs. * Place a large chart of the respiratory system on the board. Hand out Respiratory System work sheets to the students. Pages 99-102. - On the large chart point to each part in turn, and ask students to name each part and record this on their work sheet. * As a class, explain that through the process of breathing, also called respiration, oxygen-rich air is absorbed into the blood through the walls of the lungs and distributed throughout the body. We breathe out carbon dioxide which our bodies can t use, but plants need to grow and make oxygen for us to breathe. - Explain that all organs and muscles rely on oxygen-rich blood to remain fresh and work properly. Resources: Respiratory System, pages 96-104. * As a class, discuss the digestive system: - mouth - chews the food up so we can swallow it; - oesophagus - squeezes the food down to the stomach; - stomach - stores the food and breaks it down and moves the food into the small intestine in waves by squeezing in its walls; 80
Learning Experiences:... cont d... - small intestine - is where all of the things we eat are made small enough to get into our blood to go all around the body, the waste or larger pieces are passed on; - large intestine - gets the leftover food, takes out the water and sends any other waste to the rectum/anus; - rectum and anus - gets all the waste from the large intestine and sends it to the anus to go to the toilet. * Hand out the Digestive System work sheet and ask students to label the six main parts of the digestive system with the name and the function. Page 119. * In groups of six, students dramatise the six digestive system parts, working to pass food through the digestive system and present their act to the rest of the class. Pages 120-122. Resources: Digestive System, pages 113-115. * As a class, ask students if they know how the respiratory and digestive systems work together to provide the body with oxygen and the other substances needed to maintain good health. Teacher Note: It is the circulatory system that links the digestive and respiratory systems to the body. Refer to the Circulatory System Teacher Resource. All the information you need to teach this topic is detailed here, together with suggested activities. Students need to know that blood is made up of four components; plasma, red cells, white cells and platelets. Students need to know the three main functions of blood. Students need to understand that the heart is like a big pump that moves blood around the body. Oxygen-rich blood is carried through the body by arteries and then the smaller capillaries, and returned to the heart by veins. Resources: Circulatory System, pages 105-112. * As a class, talk about the central nervous system. - This is your body s control centre. Nerves carry signals to and from your brain and every single part of your body. The main pathway for these signals is your delicate spinal cord. Neurons in your brain and spinal cord form your central nervous system. - Your nerves coordinate your body helping you to move and keep your balance. Nerves also send information to and from your sense organs helping you see, hear, taste touch and smell. Teacher Note: Tell students that drugs usually enter the body via the respiratory and digestive systems and are then passed onto the circulatory system, just like food, water and oxygen. All drugs affect the way your nerves communicate with your brain and drugs like tobacco, alcohol and cannabis all slow your body down. * Ask students to stand around you in a circle. Call out someone s name and throw a ball softly to them. - Ask the students what they did, e.g. responded to the sound of their name, moved to catch the ball. Teacher Note: Tell students that this happened because the central nervous system works very quickly and can do many things at the same time. This would not happen as well if your body was affected by drugs. Resources: Central Nervous System. Pages 123 and 145. Story, page 154. Evaluation: Through discussion, brainstorming, role play and writing activities students will show their understanding of how the respiratory, digestive, circulatory and central nervous systems work, and how they are linked. 81
Bones hold our bodies up! Without them we would be like grubs! Crawling around! 83
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If you are a Top End school you may choose to point out the tradition of X-ray paintings here. Maybe students can do their own. How do desert kids draw skeletons? 85
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Now the toe bone s connected to the (clap) foot bone The foot bone s connected to the (clap) ankle bone The ankle bone s connected to the (clap) shin bone Now hear the word of the Lord CHORUS Them bones them bones them dry bones Them bones them bones them dry bones Them bones them bones them dry bones Now hear the word of the Lord Now the shin bone s connected to the (clap) knee bone The knee bone s connected to the (clap) thigh bone The thigh bone s connected to the (clap) hip bone Now hear the word of the Lord CHORUS Now the hip bone s connected to the (clap) back bone The back bone s connected to the (clap) neck bone The neck bone s connected to the (clap) head bone Now hear the word of the Lord Them bones them bones are gonna WALK AROUND! Them bones them bones are gonna STALK AROUND! Them bones them bones are gonna TALK AROUND! WWWWHHHHHHOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo! 89
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Teacher s Notes : The Respiratory System These notes are for teachers in order for you to basically understand what makes up the respiratory system and how the system works. How and why we breathe Bad air/pollution and that it causes disease Respiration (breathing) Like everything else in our bodies, breathing is controlled and monitored by our brains. Breathing supplies oxygen to our lungs and through the system to all of our cells. Each and every cell in our body needs oxygen to work properly to keep us alive. The parts of the respiratory system are The nose Pharynx Trachea Bronchi Bronchioles and air passages Alveoli Lungs 96
Teacher s Notes : The Respiratory System... continued... We use our noses to breathe in air. Once inside the nose, the air we breathe is filtered, moistened and warmed before it begins to travel to the lungs. The small hairs in our nose also help keep out dirt. Next is the pharynx. This is the same canal that our food goes down. The pharynx connects to our eustachian tubes, part of our hearing, and our sinuses. A bit further down the pharynx is the larynx. The larynx or voice box (containing our vocal cords) is what allows us to talk. During the time that the air is in the larynx and the pharynx it is filtered, moistened and warmed more. The trachea, bronchi and bronchioles are the tubes that take the mostly cleaned air into our lungs. The lungs are what we fill with oxygen and air every time we breathe. It is important to keep them clean and healthy and to keep harmful pollution such as cigarette smoke out of them. It is the job of the lungs to breathe in and out, exchanging gasses between the alveoli, and the surrounding small blood vessels and capillaries. 97
Teacher s Notes : The Respiratory System... continued... The alveoli take in the fresh oxygen from the lungs through their thin walls and take it all over the body by transferring it into the blood. What also happens is that the waste gases from the cells, such as carbon dioxide are removed by the blood and carried back to the alveoli. It is also here that waste gasses pass through the alveoli s thin walls back into the lungs to be breathed out. The breath that we breathe out is not the same as what we breathe in. It is full of waste products from our bodies and carbon dioxide. Of course when we run or do hard exercises we need more oxygen for the hardworking cells of our muscles, so our brains tell our lungs to breathe harder and to puff. Bad or polluted air does not have as much oxygen as clean air. This makes it harmful to our bodies. This is one of the ways we can be harmed by smoking. 98
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Respiratory system words. They are jumbled up can you sort them out? u n g l x g o y n e s n e o b r t e h a e r e f h s r i a e x s e i r e c 100
Lung Oxygen Nose Breathe Fresh air Exercise 101
Breathe in air - can you get enough? 1 Open mouth nostrils closed YES NO 2 Mouth closed nostrils open YES NO 3 Mouth closed one nostril closed YES NO 4 Mouth closed nostrils closed YES NO 102
Why is he coughing? Find four POLLUTANTS 103
HEY! Can you see what happens when food or drink gets into the wrong pipe? Try and label the parts with a dot on them. OH And please give this person some hair! 104
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Teacher s Notes : The Circulatory System These are basic notes for you to read and understand, when the students work on the circulatory system in The Body unit. The students will also need to understand the circulatory system and its importance and function when working on the Tobacco and other drug units. The Circulatory System What is the circulatory system? How does blood travel around the body? How does the heart work? What is its structure? What is the function of blood vessels? What is blood? What purposes does it serve? The Circulatory System The circulatory system is made up of blood, the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries. The heart pumps blood around the body in strong spurts (heartbeats). Blood is pumped through the VESSELS (arteries, veins and capillaries) by the heart. The role of the circulatory system is to deliver and remove all of the required nutrients and wastes our body needs or expels. Whatever we put into our bodies, either by eating or inhaling, will enter our circulatory system to be delivered around the body. Blood Our bodies usually contain about seven litres of blood. Blood is a liquid made up of plasma, cells and platelets. Blood is the delivery system of the body delivering nutrients and picking up wastes for expulsion. 106
Teacher s Notes : The Circulatory System... continued... Plasma makes up 55% of blood. It is a liquid and carries all essential nutrients, hormones, digested food, antibodies, and carbon dioxide around the body depending on requirements at the time. There are three kinds of blood cells red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Red blood cells carry haemoglobin. This carries oxygen from the lungs to all the cells that make up our body. White blood cells are the warriors of the body. Their job is to defend the system against germs. They attack germs and destroy them and produce antibodies. Platelets allow blood to clot. Clotting stops cuts from bleeding. If blood was not able to clot it would all run out from cuts and bruises. People have different blood types. There are four main types or groups of blood. A B AB O There are also some rarer blood types. The Heart The heart is the amazing muscle that pumps our blood around our bodies, never stopping until we die. The beat of the heart is called the pulse. The heart is protected by the sternum and the backbone. It is further protected by the lungs and the rib cage. The heart works hard pumping between 70 and 90 ml of blood each time it beats. The heart can pump all the blood in our system in just over a minute. 107
Teacher s Notes : The Circulatory System... continued... When we get excited or when we exercise, the heart beats faster so that it can supply more oxygen to the cells that make up our muscles. The blood will then pick up the wastes from those cells and move them out. The heart is about as big as your fist and never rests. The heart is divided into chambers, four altogether, but there are two main sides to the heart, the left and the right sides. Blood passes from one side of the heart to the other. Blood flows from the heart chambers to the main arteries through the aorta. There are small valves between the chambers and arteries to stop the blood from running back into the chambers. This keeps the blood travelling in the same direction all the time. Arteries take the blood away from the heart. This blood is very red because it is filled with fresh oxygen from the lungs. The arteries branch out into smaller arteries and then into tiny capillaries all through the body. The nutrients are then delivered. Arteries may become clogged with a build up of fats and plaque. This is why we need to eat a healthy, low fat diet. The capillaries then branch back into small veins, which become larger as they get near the heart. The blood here is dark because the oxygen is gone and now it carries wastes and carbon dioxide, which we will breathe out. The large veins join together and meet at the right ventricle or chamber of the heart. Here the blood is pumped into the heart again to give up its wastes and collect more oxygen before leaving through the aorta again. Blood Pressure A regular measure of a healthy heart and circulatory system is a blood pressure check. Blood pressure is the force applied to the walls of the blood vessels as the heart pumps the blood around the body. 108
Teaching Time Some possible activities Make words related to circulation Make a word using each letter as a beginning. For example, a - artery. The words all relate to circulation. Diagram of the heart Draw the diagram on the board. Get the students to come up and show how the blood comes in and out of the heart. Let the students try and draw a heart. PULSE! Ask students to feel for a pulse in the neck (carotid), or the wrist (radial). Explain that their pulse is the beating of their heart. Ask the students what they think would happen if their arteries became blocked. Would as much blood be able to pump through? Do you think you would get tired? What would happen if the artery became totally blocked? What would cause an artery to become blocked? 109
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Hmm make words related to circulation from these letters! 111
Hhhhmmmmmm Can you complete these sentences? The _ cage and the protect the heart. Our heartbeat can be felt in our _. It is called the p. The heart only has a short between beats. Blood flows in to the heart through the. The heart is a strong _. The heart is made of. The heart blood. Blood flows out from the heart full of _. 112
Teacher s Notes : The Digestive System These are some notes for you that will help you in the unit on the digestive system. What is the digestive system and what is its function? What is the structure of the digestive system? What tasks do the many different parts of the system do? How can we best have a healthy digestive system? The Digestive System The digestive system is also known as the alimentary canal. The whole canal is over eight metres long! Ask students to measure eight metres, so they can see how long this is. The system processes our food, and breaks it into vitamins minerals and other elements which then go as nutrients to supply all of our body. The digestive system is made up of many different parts though all are connected from one end through to the other end. Mouth This is the entrance to the digestive system, and as soon as we even think of some foods, our system begins to work by excreting saliva. OUR MOUTH WATERS. Saliva moistens food to make it easier to process, and it also begins digestion by adding enzymes to break the food down. 113
Teacher s Notes : The Digestive System... continued... The other important parts of this section of the digestive system are our teeth and tongue. Teeth chew and break food into smaller manageable pieces and the tongue moves the food around the mouth and helps us swallow. The tongue tastes food too! Oesophagus This is the strong muscular tube that goes down inside our throats. The oesophagus contracts and squeezes pushing food into our stomachs. When food goes down the wrong pipe, it has missed our oesophagus and parts of it have gone into our windpipe. Then we cough and splutter, to stop it getting down further. Stomach We know where this is and we like to keep it happy and full! After food has been swallowed and pushed down the oesophagus into the stomach, a sphincter muscle at the top closes to keep the food from rising up full of stomach acids into the oesophagus again. If more food comes down it opens up and lets it in! The stomach is protected by the rib cage and mixes the food we have eaten with strong acids and liquids that break the food into smaller pieces and juices. The mixture is squished and squelched by strong contractions. The food is then pushed down into the small intestine. THE AMAZING THING IS THAT ALL OF THIS ACTIVITY TAKES PLACE WITHOUT US EVEN REALLY BEING AWARE OF IT! 114
Teacher s Notes : The Digestive System... continued... The Gall Bladder and Pancreas These two parts send bile and enzymes into the stomach. The bile and enzymes break up fats and proteins and send them into our bodies as fuels. The pancreas also produces hormones to control our blood sugar levels. The Small Intestine It is around about six and a half metres long! It is full of tiny wavy fingers called villi. The villi are full of tiny blood vessels, which collect nutrients and send them into the blood to be taken to the liver. More breaking down is done without us even knowing it and then the liver delivers the extra nutrients to the blood and all over the body. The Large Intestine What is left of your food at this point in the digestive process is a sludgy type of mix of about 70% water. Some of the water is taken in through the walls of the large intestines, as are vitamins, salt and minerals. If we do not drink enough water our body will take it from the mix in the large intestine and we will become constipated. When the large intestine has done its job, the sludge becomes faeces and enters the rectum. Muscles then let us know when it is time for the faeces to be expelled at the toilet. 115
Dietary fibre is eaten and travels through our whole system unchanged. It is in foods such as oats, fruits, bran and is a large part of all vegetables. Dietary fibre helps the food move easily through our digestive system and helps keep our insides clean. Dietary fibre also helps us to expel faecal matter. Without dietary fibre we run the risk of some horrible consequences. They are : Bowel and colon cancer Haemorrhoids A struggle at the toilet (constipation) We can prevent these diseases in a number of ways. 1. We need to drink enough water. At least two litres a day! 2. We need to go to the toilet when our body tells us to! 3. We need to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables! 4. We need to exercise! Sometimes other problems can develop such as gas and diarrhoea. 116
Gas is caused by the food we sometimes eat (beans are famous for this), and is easily fixed up by not mixing some foods together or by going to the toilet. If a person has gas all the time over a longer period, they should see a doctor, as there could be another problem in their system. A germ may cause diarrhoea. It can also be caused by other types of infection. Stress and nervousness can also cause diarrhoea. Hand washing helps prevent diarrhoea. When a person has diarrhoea, the large intestine does not absorb enough water and the sludgy, liquid product is what is expelled, often quite quickly! If a person gets diarrhoea, the situation needs fast action. Children especially can become quickly dehydrated and if there is a particularly bad germ in the system there can also be vomiting. Children are at great risk and can become dangerously ill in a short time if they have both diarrhoea and vomiting. Children should be taken straight to the clinic, or a hospital for treatment. There are a lot of good medicines for diarrhoea. 117
1 mouth = green 2 liver = purple 3 stomach = yellow 4 lungs = black 5 heart = orange 6 large intestine = pink 7 small intestine = red 8 oesophagus = blue Do you like the colours? Are these the real colours of our body organs or not? 118
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Digestion starts here with chewing and mixing with saliva and enzymes so that food can be swallowed. The pipe that runs down your throat to the stomach. Strong muscles squeeze the mixed and chewed food down. 120
Churns, mixes and squeezes food around, mixing bile and acids to break food down more before sending it to the small intestine It s all squiggly and is very long. Here is the place where food begins to go into the blood stream to be used by our bodies for energy. What is left is all slushy and it goes into the large intestine for more processing. 121
It is shorter than the small intestine but fatter. All the left over food and nutrients are taken out here into the bloodstream. Extra water is also removed. What is left goes to the rectum. Here the wastes of the body are stored and sent to the rectum. The rectum is the last part of our digestive system. Strong muscles push the left over wastes, called faeces, out of the rectum and out of the body. 122
Teacher s Notes : The Central Nervous System This information on the nervous system will not turn you into an expert but will give you the information you need for the unit. What is the central nervous system? What is the structure of the nervous system? What tasks does the system perform and how? How can the nervous system be hurt and what are the consequences? The Central Nervous System The central nervous system is our body s control centre. The system is made up of your brain, nerves and the pathways they follow through your body. Nerves There is a whole network of nerves that run to every part of your body. There are over 75 kilometres of nerves in a person s body; they run signals around the body at a speed of 120 metres a second! That s fast! Our brain and nervous system are like a computer that would run a robot. Nerves allow us to feel, they maintain our balance and coordinate our body s movements. They send information to parts of the brain where it is processed and translated into things we recognise, like pain, sight, temperature, taste and touch. 123
Teacher s Notes : The Central Nervous System... continued... The Brain Your brain sits in your skull where it is protected by thick bone and floats in a protective fluid. The brain is the control centre of the body. The brain allows us to breathe, speak, see and taste. The brain is connected to your whole body by nerves and the spinal cord. Signals from nerves in the body are sent straight to the brain. The signals are then translated into pain, sight and other feelings. The Spinal Cord The spinal cord is like a large tough electrical cable. Bundles of nerves run through it, and thick sheathing and the bones of the spinal column protect the precious nerves. If our spine is injured, the nerves may be squashed or cut. Damaged nerves cannot be repaired by the body! That is why we see people who have damaged nerves or spinal columns in wheelchairs. Some have no feeling in their legs at all. How do messages get around the nervous system? Nerve cells are called neurons. Neurons pass signals from one neuron to another. There are two main types of neuron: sensory and motor neurons. 124
Teacher s Notes : The Central Nervous System... continued... Sensory neurons carry signals from sense organs to the spinal cord and the brain. Motor neurons allow us to move by sending signals to the muscles. It really is amazing! The central nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and the nerves, can be damaged in a number of ways. Alcohol, petrol and solvent sniffing, smoking and drug abuse are some ways that the brain can be damaged that are preventable. Accidents are the main cause of damage. ONCE ANY PART OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IS DAMAGED IT IS TOO LATE! DAMAGE TO THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM CAN NEVER BE REPAIRED! The consequences of a damaged nervous system can be loss of sense hearing, sight, touch or feeling, lack of taste. Other consequences are destroyed brain cells, which may not allow us to speak again or to be able to remember or even think properly. Motor neurons and nerves that are damaged will stop us from being able to control our bodies. 125