Introduction
How do you know what you know? Immanuel Kant believed that there was transcendent knowledge that we have without experience -- a priori knowledge. Mr. Locke, however, would say you began Tabula Rasa and everything since learned was via your senses. We cannot measure from whence comes the former, but we can measure latter. That is, we can learn how we learn, how we know, and in a way therefore, how we came to be who we are.
Guiding Question
How do our senses bring us information?
How do our brains interpret these data (bottom up & top down)?
Questions
1. The Basis
What is tranduction? Which senses are chemical based? Which are based on physical energy? Is pain its own sense or sub-set of touch (what are the arguments in favor of both theories)? 2. Thresholds
What does threshold mean? What is an absolute threshold? What is Weber's law / What does JDN stand for? What does subliminal mean / can our behavior be changed subliminally? 3. The Eye
Draw an eye. Include: cornea, iris, lens, optic nerve, pupil & retina. What is determined by wavelength? What by wave amplitude? What are rods and cones, what are they, what do they do? Why do tomatoes remain red even if shifting illumination changes reflected wave lengths? 4. The Ear
Draw an ear with: canal, tympanic membrane, anvil, hammer, stirrup, cochlea, auditory nerve. What do longer wave lengths mean in sound in terms of pitch? How is sound measured? At what point are your ears in danger of damage from sound? 5. Taste & Smell
What organs are associated with these senses? What do these organs detect (how many tastes are there)? How are they related? Is spicy a taste? 6. Touch, Balance, & Pain
Could pain be its own sense? Explain. What is Vertigo, where does it come from? Texture, temperature, pressure, & pain are all associated with which sense? Which has its own identifiable receptor cells? What does your body release when its in pain?
Internet Resources
Weber's Law
Ear
Vertigo (spinning sensation) - Dizziness, Balance Disturbance
Smell & Taste
What Does Your Pain Want to Say?
Your Eyes
Absolute Thresholds
The Rods and Cones of the Human Eye
Can you use subliminal messages to change your life?
Are your ears in the danger zone?
Activities
1. Create a binder demonstrating mastery of these concepts.
2. Write a multiple-choice test you would give students after they had completed learning this unit.
3. Using a shoe box & two empty paper towel rolls, create a rolling series to explain these concepts.
4. Interview medical professionals who specialize in one or more sense organs: what got them interested, what inerests them now, what do they think the future will bring?
5. Make a storyboard for an animated cartoon that explains these ideas (a la Magic School Bus, Osmosis Jones, Dora, or other education but fun shows)
6. Choreograph an interpretive dance that makes these concepts come to life.
7. Write a front page for an imaginary paper of the sense -- with stories coming in from various organs. Or video this as a newscast.
8. Using Play-doh and stop-motion camera techniques, upload to Youtube a Claymation that makes this plain the role of the senses.
9. Write an extended Beat-Poet style stream of consciousness prose-poem addressing the ideas here discussed.
10. Write a short expository essay about the senses.
11. Make a board game that is educational and fun.
12. Make a children's book explaining these concepts to a 4th or 5th grader.
13. Go the graveyard and secure body parts for your own creation, making sure that the salvaged sense organs are in good shape, and construct life14. Demonstrate understanding in another method, but check with me first.