Investigation One
Lesson Overview: Thinking Caps
Students will create a model of the brain using a swim cap and learn a mnemonic device to remember the name and location of the lobes. Students will be introduced to the worksheet, brain location and function. Students will complete this worksheet over the next few days as each lobe is introduced and discovered. The worksheet will provide note taking practice for the students as they get ready to complete independent research. After the function of each lobe has been discovered, students will create a visual image to explain the function. Students will add this image to their swim cap at the end of the week and will then have completed their very own thinking cap! This lesson will last four 25 to 30 minute class sessions.
Enduring Understanding: Each region of the brain has a different job to do.
Essential Question: What are the locations and functions of the different regions of the brain?
Materials: Hands, swim cap, permanent markers, brain location and function worksheet (Appendix A)
Procedure: Day One
At the beginning of the lesson, students will close each hand, have back of thumbs facing body, put both hands together. This is a representation of the human brain. The thumbs represent the frontal lobe, move around to the backs of the hands and this represents the temporal lobes. The pinkies will represent the area of the occipital lobe, and the tops of the folded fingers will represent the parietal lobe. This model will give students a visual representation approximately the size of their brains and showing the idea of two hemispheres. I will introduce the mnemonic device of F-TOP to remember the names and position of the lobes: start at the thumbs, (Frontal), go to backs of hands, (Temporal), around to the pinkies, (Occipital), and up to the top of the fingers, (Parietal).
Students will be presented with a variety of diagrams retrieved from an image search on-line. Students will work in pairs for this activity. Using the diagrams and the hands activity presented earlier in this lesson, students will use markers to outline the four lobes of the brain.
Day Two- Four
Through direct instruction, videos, and student led research using on-line searches and non-fiction books, (some suggested titles in resource section); students will discover the functions of each region of the brain. As students determine this information, they will add the information into the pertinent area of the worksheet. When the worksheet is completed, the students will create a visual image to explain what happens in the designated lobe. Students will add the image to their "thinking cap" and can present their caps to the class to explain their images.
Assessment: Completion of the worksheet and the "thinking cap" will serve as a summative assessment for this activity.
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