Posted on: February 1st 2018
Form 6 recently enjoyed a visit from a neuroscientist. Read Georgina and Priya's accounts of their experience.
On Thursday 25th January, Form 6 was fortunate enough to have Mrs Pedarzani, a neuroscientist, come to school and talk about the fascinating mystery and science behind the human brain. We learnt that the brain is the centre of the human nervous system, controlling our thoughts, movements, memories and decisions. The brain also contains billions of nerve cells that send and receive information around the body, known as neurons.
After learning some amazing facts about the human brain; one of them being how to determine the size of your brain by clutching both your fists and joining them together, we went on to explore animal brains. Did you know that the human brain is over three times as big as the brain of other mammals that are of similar body size?
Now it is time to put the theory into practice. We made a neuron by blowing up a recyclable glove and by attaching pipe cleaners onto the blown fingertips which resemble the branches of the neuron. These neurons carry signals from the nervous system to organs, such as muscles and glands. We also learnt that our brain doesn’t cover our entire scalp, and that there is a small gap with fluid flowing through, which acts like a cushion in our brain so it is protected.
Form 6 was intrigued by Mrs Pedarzani and how much there is to learn about something we all have. We all enjoyed Mrs Pedarzani’s visit and some of us are even considering becoming a neuroscientist!
By Georgina C
The experiment that I did was creating a human brain cap. This showed us where things, that we do everyday, are stored in our brain such as tasting or writing. This also showed us the texture and how wrinkly our brain is. If we were trying to name something such as an apple, we would be using the right side of our brain. The brain, and the small things that help it function, was a very enjoyable subject to learn about.
By Priya T
