The Five Senses

Click this when you are finished Sight Touch Smell Sound Taste Plan for Teachers Take Home Project Click this when you are finished

Sense of Sight How do we see? Why do people wear glasses? Interesting Facts Test your sight

Click the picture to look at a diagram of an eye The Easy Version Think of your eyes as a video camera. Then think of your brain as a computer. Everything that you see is “recorded” and then sent from your eyes to your brain. Your brain then processes all of the information like a computer does. What is really going on When you look at something, the light bounces off the object and into the pupil.  The light then crosses the lens and the lens focuses on the object.  The object you are looking at turns upside down.  The object then shines on the back of the eye.  The Rods and Cones determine the shape and color of the object.  Then, the optic nerve carries the picture you see and your message goes to the brain.  The brain then flips the image upright and decides what to do with the image. Click the picture to look at a diagram of an eye

Glasses Glasses Myopia Hyperopia Have you ever looked at something really far away and it was fuzzy? If so, you probably have some sort of myopia. Myopia is another name for nearsightedness which is being able to see things clearly that are close to you, but have trouble with objects that are far away. Have you ever tried to read a book and the letters seems all fuzzy and hard to read? If so, then you have Hyperopia which is another name for farsightedness which is being able to see things clearly that are far away, but cannot see objects that are close. Click the bottom lady to see a picture explaining myopia and hyperopia

Did you know? Most people blink every 2-10 seconds. Approximately 160 million people in the US wear glasses or contact lenses. Each time you blink, you shut your eyes for 0.3 seconds, which means your eyes are closed at least 30 minutes a day just from blinking. An ostrich has eyes that are two inches across. Each eye weighs more than the brain.

For this image, close your right eye For this image, close your right eye. With your left eye, look at the red circle. Slowly move your head closer to the image. At a certain distance, the blue line will not look broken!! This is because your brain is "filling in" the missing information. For this image, close your right eye. Look at the plus sign with your left eye. Slowly move your head closer to the image. Soon you will not be able to see the black dot. This point if your blind spot. Click this for more activities

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Sense of Touch Why do we feel a certain way when we touch things? Interesting Facts

Click the picture to look at a diagram of receptors Touch using your skin to have physical contact with another object Touch receptors are located everywhere in your body. This is because your sense of touch originates in the bottom layer of your skin called the dermis The dermis is filled with nerve endings. The nerve endings carry information to the spinal cord, which then sends messages to the brain. The most sensitive one are on your face, back of your neck, chest, arm, fingers, soles of your feet, and between your legs. There are about twenty different types of nerve endings in your body. Click the picture to look at a diagram of receptors

Did you Know? The least sensitive part of your body is the middle of your back. Shivering is a way your body has of trying to get warmer. You have more pain nerve endings than any other type. There are about 100 touch receptors in each of your fingertips.

Sense of Smell How do we smell? Connection Between Smell and Taste Interesting Facts

Click the picture to look at a diagram of the nose You smell these odors through your nose which is almost like a huge cave built to smell, moisten, and filter the air you breathe. As you breathe in, the air enters through your nostrils which contain tiny little hairs that filter all kinds of things trying to enter your nose. These little hairs are called cilia and you can pretend that they sweep all the dirt out of the nasal cavity, which is the big place the air passes through on it's way to the lungs. After passing through the nasal cavity, the air passes through a thick layer of mucus to the olfactory bulb. There the smells are recognized because each smell molecule fits into a nerve cell like a lock and key. Then the cells send signals along your olfactory nerve to the brain. At the brain, they are interpreted. Click the picture to look at a diagram of the nose

Connection between taste and smell When you take a bite and chew the odor molecules from food inside your mouth float upwards into your nasal cavity. Your nose then goes through the process of smelling.

Did You Know? Sometimes your nose can tell the difference between 4000-10,000 smells. As you grow older, your sense of smell gets worse. Children are likely to have much more subtle senses of smell than parents or grandparents. A Bloodhound smells at least 1000 times better than humans. 1 in 1,000 people are insensitive to butyl mercaptan which is the stinky smell of skunks. About 2 million people in the United States have NO sense of smell Smelling is related to your memory, so sometimes when you smell something it reminds you of a past experience

Sense of Taste How do we taste? Taste Buds Interesting Facts

How do we taste? When you eat something, saliva and your teeth break down the food. This causes the receptor cells located in your tastes buds to send messages through sensory nerves to your brain. Your brain then tells you what flavors you are tasting. There are different parts of your tongue that recognize different tastes. Everyone tastes differently. Taste changes as you get older.

Taste Buds Sweet Bitter Sour Salt

Did you know? We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths. We have taste buds on the roof of our mouth Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts. Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth. In general, girls have more taste buds than boys. A giraffe's tongue can be 29 inches in length. Taste is the weakest of the five senses.

Sense of Sound How do we hear? Interesting Facts

How do we hear? When an object makes a noise, vibrations are sent through the air These vibrations are then funneled into your ear canal by your outer ear. As the vibrations move into your middle ear, they hit your eardrum and cause it to vibrate as well. Your eardrum then vibrates the three smallest bones in your body: first, the hammer, then the anvil, and finally, the stirrup. The stirrup passes the vibrations into a coiled tube in the inner ear called the cochlea.

How do we hear (continued)? Inside the cochlea, there are thousands of nerve endings called cilia. When the stirrup causes the fluid in the cochlea to vibrate, the cilia move. The cilia change the vibrations into messages that are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve carries messages from 25,000 receptors in your ear to your brain. Your brain then makes sense of the messages and tells you what sounds you are hearing. Click Here

Did you know? Babies can get earaches because of milk backing up in the Eustachian tube, which causes bacteria to grow and may cause hearing problems later in life. When you go up to high elevations, the change in pressure causes your ears to pop. Children have more sensitive ears than adults. They can recognize a wider variety of noises. Dolphins have the best sense of hearing among animals. They are able to hear 14 times better than humans. An earache is caused by too much fluid putting pressure on your eardrum. Earaches are often the result of an infection, allergies or a virus.

Please Answer the following questions Printer Friendly Version Assessment Please Answer the following questions Printer Friendly Version 1) People that have trouble seeing objects up close have a) myopia b) hyperopia c) presbyopia 2) People that have trouble seeing objects that are far away have a) myopia b) hyperopia c) presbyopia 3) When you look at an object, the object turns upside down. a) true b) false 4) Dermis is another name for a) hair b) skin c) muscle d) eye 5) Where are touch receptors located? a) hand b) feet c) back d) all of the above

Assessment (continued) 6) The least sensitive part of you body is your stomach. a) true b) false 7) How many different sections of taste do we have on our tongue? a) four b) five c) three d) six 8) We have about 100,000 taste buds in our mouth. a) true b) false 9) Which animals have the highest development of taste? a) giraffes b) bears c) humans d) insects 10) Teeth and ________ help break down the food in your mouth. a) tongue b) taste buds c) saliva

Assessment (continued) 11) Your ear has 25,000 receptors. a) true b) false 12) When a sound goes into your ear it vibrates on the three smallest bones in what order? a) hammer, anvil, stirrup b) anvil, stirrup, hammer 13) Taste and smell have no connection. a) true b) false 14) Butyl mercaptan is another name for the stinky smell in a) skunks b) dead animals c) perfume d) natural gas 15) As you grow older your sense of smell gets stronger.

Try Again

Try Again

Try Again

Take Home Assignment For the take home assignment you will make a chart for the five senses. Make 5 columns and 6 rows. In the top row of each column, put one of the five senses. Then get a few magazines and see if you can find the examples of the five senses used in the magazine. Try to find at least five and paste the pictures in the spaces below the appropriate labels. Rubric