Make a Neuron

Create a model of a neuron by using clay, playdough, styrofoam, recyclables, food or anything else you can get your hands on. Use pictures from books to give you an idea of where the components of a neuron should go and what shape they should be. Use different colors to indicate different structures. Make a neural circuit with a few of the neurons. Create sensory or motor systems. Eat your model if you made it out of food!!

• Clay or Playdough or Styrofoam or Recyclables (bottle caps, cups, buttons, etc) OR Food (fruit, jelly beans)
• A picture or diagram of a neuron (see the picture below or go to: more about neurons.)

Beady Neuron

For grades 3-12 Get out those beads and make a neuron! This neuron with seven dendrites requires 65 beads: 42 beads for the dendrites, 10 beads for the cell body, 12 beads for the axon and 1 bead for the synaptic terminal. String the beads using the pattern in the diagrams below. The string can be yarn, rope, or for the best result use flexible wire. You can also create your own pattern or use a different colored bead for a nucleus in the cell body.

• Wire
• 65 beads (4 different colors)

Pipe Cleaner Neuron

Get out those pipe cleaners and make a neuron! This neuron pipe cleaners of 5 different colors: one color each for the dendrites, cell body, axon, myelin sheath and synaptic terminal. Any colors will do.

String Neuron

It's a parachute! It's a witch's broom! It's the Eiffel Tower! No, it's a NEURON.
If you have ever played any "string games," then this neuron model should be easy for you to make. Follow the steps on this page to make a neuron from string.

• A loop of string or yarn (about 3 ft. in length).

Rope Neuron

1. Get volunteers to hold each of the dendrites.
2. Get one volunteer to hold the cell body and one to hold the synaptic terminal. Make sure the person holding the synaptic terminal keeps his or her hands AWAY from the place the axon attaches (more about this later).
3. Get one volunteer who will hold more molecules of neurotransmitter (more plastic balls) near the people who are dendrites.
4. Get one volunteer to hold the action potential.

1. Have the person holding molecules of neurotransmitter TOSS the plastic balls to the people who are dendrites. The "dendrite people" try to catch the plastic balls. This models the release of neurotransmitters and the attachment (binding) of neurotransmitters to receptors on dendrites.
2. When three plastic balls are caught by dendrites, the person holding the action potential can throw/slide the pool float down the axon. This simulates the depolarization of the neuron above its threshold value and the generation of an action potential.
3. The action potential (pool float) should speed down the axon toward the synaptic terminal where it will slam into the container. This should cause the release of the neurotransmitters (plastic balls) that were being held there.
   CAUTION: The pool float will travel very fast! Make sure that the person holding the synaptic terminal keeps his or her fingers and hands AWAY from the pool float.

• Once the action potential starts, it continues without interruption.
• The size of the action potential stays the same as it travels down the axon.

• Rope (for dendrites and axon)
• Plastic containers (for cell body and synaptic terminal)
• Pool Float (or another object will slide along the rope; for the action potential)
• Plastic balls (for neurotransmitters)
• Volunteers!

CD Neuron

Neuron Costume

Neuron. in a BAG!

• Jell-O - any flavor
• Plastic bags - sandwich size
• Canned fruit
• Candies
• Twist ties
• A picture or diagram of a neuron

Simple Neuron Model

Model a Brain

• Clay or Playdough or Styrofoam or Recyclables (bottle caps, cups, buttons, etc) OR Food (fruit, jelly beans)
• A picture or diagram of the brain

Recipe 1 (from the Pacific Science Center and the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA)

Recipe 2 (from BrainLink)

Thinking Cap

Baked Brains/Baked Neurons

• Flour (1 cup)
• Salt (1/4 cup)
• Water (1/3 to 1/2 cup)
• Oven for baking
• Paints

Do You Know Your Brain?

Make a Cat and Rabbit Brain

Jello Brain

• 3 large (6 oz) boxes of jello (peach or watermelon recommended)
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated skimmed/fat-free milk
• A few drops of green food coloring (to change the color to gray)
• 3.5 cups of water (2.5 cups boiled; 1 cup cold)

1. Coat mold with vegetable oil or spray
2. Add 2.5 cups of boiling water into jello. Stir and dissolve jello.
3. Stir in 1 cup of cold water.
4. Stir in skimmed milk (~2 minutes)
5. Add a few drops of green food coloring
6. Pour entire mixture into jello mold
7. Place mold into refrigerator overnight.

Make the Bones of the Spinal Column (Vertebrae)

The human spinal cord is protected by the bony spinal column shown. There are 31 segments of the spinal cord and 33 bones (vertebrae) that surround these segments. There are 7 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral and 4 coccygeal vertebrae in the human body. To model these bones, get 33 empty spools of thread (buttons may also work or slices of paper towel holders). Run a string or thread through the middle of one of the spools or buttons. Tie off one end of the string and put the remaining spools or buttons on the string. Each spool (or button) will represent one vertebra. When your model is finished, notice how it can bend. In a real spinal column, the vertebrae are held together by ligaments.

Color a Brain

Cap Head. No, it's your Brain!

Connect the Dots

For grades K-6 This exercise is to illustrate the complexity of the connections of the brain. Draw 10 dots on one side of a piece of paper and 10 dots on the other side of the paper. Assume these dots represent neurons, and assume that each neuron makes connections with the 10 dots on the other side of the paper. Then connect each dot on one side with the 10 dots on the other side. As you can see from the diagram below, it gets very complicated after a while. I have only connected 4 of the "neurons". Remember that this is quite a simplification. Each neuron (dot) may actually make thousands of connections with other neurons. If you tried this your paper would be really messy!!

Compare and Contrast

• corpus callosum
• thalamus
• pons
• inferior and superior colliculus
• cingulate cortex
• medulla
• cerebellum

Model a Retinal Image

Message Transmission

• What are the parts of a neuron? The hand that receives the neurotransmitter is the "dendrite." The middle part of your body is the "soma" or "cell body." The arm that passes the neurotransmitter to the next person is the "axon" and the hand that gives the slap is the "synaptic terminal". In between the hands of two people is the "synaptic gap". For more about the parts of a neuron, see cells of the nervous system and the synapse.
• Measure how long it takes the message to get from the first neuron to the last. Also, measure the distance from the first to the last neuron. Now calculate the speed. How fast did the message travel from first to last neuron? Why do you think the speed of transmission of the model is so slow?

• Stopwatch
• Vials for neurotransmitters

Saltatory Conduction

Saltatory conduction is a way that myelinated axons transmit action potentials. Action potentials jump from node to node. To model this, have everyone stand up and form a straight line. Each person should be at arms length of the next person. Give the last person in line a small object like a ball or an eraser. This time, each person does NOT make up an individual neuron. This time, everyone together is a SINGLE neuron and each person is a "myelinated section" of an axon. The space between each person is a node of Ranvier. To start the axon potential, someone should say "go". The first person will slap the hand of the neighboring person, then that person will slap the hand of the next person etc., etc. Remember, in this model, the line of people is just one neuron.

When the action potential gets to the last person holding the object, have this person toss the object into the air. This represents the neurotransmitter (the object) floating out into the synaptic cleft (the air).

You can also measure the time it takes the signal to move down the axon using a stopwatch. Measure the approximate distance the signal must travel (the total distance of the all the people). If you then divide the distance by the time, you will get the speed (conduction velocity) of the signal. The conduction velocity of this model neuron will most likely be much slower than in the fastest of real neurons (about 268 miles/hr).

Don't forget to read more about saltatory conduction

Action Potential Game

Objective: Race to raise the resting potential above threshold to fire an action potential.

Background: When neurotransmitters cross a synapse, they can bind with receptors on dendrites. This binding can result in a change in the electrical potential of a neuron. An excitatory postsynaptic potential occurs with the neuron becomes depolarized, raising the electrical potential from its baseline of about -70 mV and bringing it closer to threshold and increasing the chance that an action potential will fire. An inhibitory postsynaptic potential occurs when the electrical potential is lowered, making it less likely an action potential will be generated. If the electrical potential is raised so that it reaches the threshold, an action potential will fire down the axon of a neuron.

How to Play: Players should be divided into two teams: the Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP) Team and the Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential (IPSP) Team. The teams will race to see who can get the greatest signal to their team's cell body in 30 seconds. Each team lines up to act like a dendrite. A signal, (a small ball), is passed from person to person much like how an electrical signal travels down a dendrite toward the cell body. Each EPSP team signal successfully transferred to the cell body is worth +5 or +10 mV (millivolts); each IPSP Team signal is worth -5 or -10 mV. The signals are passed down the dendrites until they reach the end and are tossed into the cell body container. Only one signal ball can be passed at a time meaning that a dendrite must drop the ball (signal) into the cell body container before the first person in the dendrite can pass the next ball (signal).

To Win: The typical resting potential of a neuron is -70 mV. To cause an action potential the membrane potential must reach -55 mV. Therefore at the end of 30 seconds the signals are summed from the cell body container. The total amount of millivolts is added to -70 mV to see if an action potential is fired. If an action potential is fired the EPSP team wins! If not then the IPSP team wins!

Nervous System Kid

It's a bird, it's a plane. no it's "Nervous System Kid" (also known as "Brain Boy" or "Gyri Girl")! Get a large piece of butcher paper - large enough for a student to lie down on. Have a student lie down on this paper and outline his or her body. Now fill-in and color this outline with parts of the nervous system or use the pictures of the organs supplied below. The brain and spinal cord should be easy. Don't forget the sense organs (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, skin). Follow a diagram of the peripheral nerves to add more features to your drawing. Also, label the structures that are drawn.

• Butcher paper
• Markers (to outline and color the picture)
• Pens and pencils (to label the structures)
• Pictures of internal and sense organs - cut out, paste on your body outline and color (use the "back" button of your browser to bring you back to this page):
  • Brain
  • Nose
  • Eyes
  • Mouth
  • Ears
  • Heart/Lung
  • Digestive System

  Mr. Egghead - The Cerebrospinal Fluid

  Grades 3-12

  The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has several functions. One of these functions is to protect the brain from sudden impacts. To demonstrate how this works, we need to bring in "Mr. Egghead." Mr. Egghead is a raw egg with drawn-on face. The inside of the egg represents the brain and the egg shell represents the pia mater (the inner most layer of the meninges or coverings of the brain).

  Put Mr. Egghead in a container (tupperwear works fine) that is a bit larger than the egg. The container represents the skull. Now put a tight top on the container and shake it. You should observe that shaking the "brain" (the egg) in this situation results in "damage" (a broken egg).

  Now repeat this experiment with a new Mr. Egghead, except this time, fill the container with water. The water represents the cerebrospinal fluid. Note that shaking the container does not cause the "brain damage" as before because the fluid has cushioned the brain from injury.

  You could make this into a science fair project: test the hypothesis that "The cerebrospinal fluid and skull protect the brain from impact injury." Drop Mr. Egghead from a standard height (or heights) in different conditions: 1) with fluid in the container, 2) without fluid in the container, 3) with different fluids or materials (sand, rocks) or 4) in different shaped containers, etc. Make sure you keep notes to record your observations!

  • Eggs (at least 2)
  • Markers to draw on a face (waterproof)
  • Plastic container with top.
  • Water (to fill the container)

  Slice and Dice - Learning Directions and Planes of Section

  Grades 3-12

  One way to learn the planes of sections and anatomical directions is to model the brain with fruit. That's right, fruit. the bigger the better. a melon (honey dew or cantaloupe) works nicely. Make eyes, a nose, ears and a mouth out of cork and stick them on the melon head with toothpicks. Or better yet, get a set of "Mr. Potato Head" body parts and stick them into the melon. The eyes, nose, ear and mouth give a sense of "which way is the front" to the round melon. Now make your sections with a large knife. a coronal (frontal) section first, then a horizontal section, then a sagittal section. See the "slice page" for the correct directions and planes.

  • A melon - a honey dew or cantaloupe work
  • Cork or Mr. Potato Head body pieces
  • Knife - to cut melon

  Emotion Notion

  How many emotions do you have? Happy, sad, mad, surprised? Make an "Emotion Collage" by cutting out magazine pictures of people expressing different emotions. Glue the pictures on a piece of paper or make a poster to show the different emotions. You could make separate papers or posters of different emotions.

  • Magazines with pictures of people
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Paper or poster board

  Brain Comparisons

  Grades 3-12

  How is your brain similar to other objects? For example, how is your brain like a bowl of Jell-O? How is it different? Are they both soft? Do they have layers? Can they store information? Do they use electricity? Do they contain chemicals? Give each person a different object. Each person must make a list of similarities and differences between their object and a brain.

  • Suggested objects: Jell-O, tape recorder, balloon, apple, camera, computer, telephone, book, ball.

  Brain Charades

  Although it's not too difficult to describe what the brain does, it's not too easy to act it out. Try to describe the functions of the brain and nervous system with this game of "Brain Charades."

  Write down words that describe brain functions on small pieces of paper. This table of words will help you get started:

  Mix the papers in a bowl, bag or a hat. A player should pick a paper out of the bowl then act out the function. Everyone else should try to guess what the player is acting out. Actors must remain silent. When someone guesses the action, write the word on the board. Another player should select a new word and act it out. Repeat the game until all of the words have been identified correctly.