Neuron Construction Kits

Last week was our first week out in the schools and it went so well! In our first lesson the elementary students made pipe cleaner models of neurons to learn about their anatomy. The models were then connected to each other to demonstrate to the students how neuron work together in networks like the human brain. This lesson was loosely based on the pipe cleaner neuron model suggestion at the Neuroscience for Kids/Brain Awareness Week website. The lesson plan below explains some of the modifications we made.

Materials per kit:
one black pipe cleaner (cell body)
one green pipe cleaner (axon)
1/4 pink pipe cleaner curled around a pencil to make a spiral (DNA)
one orange pipe cleaner (dendrites)
one yellow pipe cleaner (axon terminals)
one white pipe cleaner (to represent myelin)
1-4 Sew-on snaps*
Neuron Construction Kit Instruction Sheet

*You can get sew-on snaps at any craft store. I used size 2 because it was easier to get my hands on very many of them, but in hindsight, I think the bigger size 1 snaps would have been a lot easier for the kids to manipulate.

Other useful materials:
Transparency or poster of a neuron

Preparation:
Cut the orange and yellow pipe cleaners in half and add the snaps to the ends. Make sure to always use the same side of the snap for axons (yellow) and the other side for dendrites (orange). I had a lot of kids to make kits for so I only added snaps to two of the four dendrites and axon terminals (one end of each piece), but snaps could be added to all of them if desired (both ends of each piece).

Put all the materials in a ziplock bag. Each student could have their own kit, but having them work in pairs was a good opportunity to practice teamwork and group problem solving. (Working in pairs also made it easier to get everyone to participate in the network exercise at the end of the lesson. In the classes where each student made his own neuron, some students were reluctant to give up their neuron to be part of the network.)

Lesson Plan:

We introduced the activity by showing a picture of a neuron and asking for ideas about what this might be. We explained that all living things are completely made up of cells. There are different cells in different part of our bodies. This picture is of special type of cell that makes up the nervous system and is called a neuron. We tried discussing neuron anatomy before building in some classes and after building in others. Both ways worked well, but I kind of liked the idea of having them build the kits by following the instructions before they knew much about the parts of neurons. It got the kids asking lots of questions as they were building.

Next we passed out the kits and started building!

Some students finished very quickly and some needed help getting the piper cleaners to bend the right way. While our quick builders were waiting for the rest of their class to finish building they were prompted to draw a picture of their neuron model and come up with a question they wanted to ask.

Once the Neuron models are constructed, we filled out a worksheet as a class where students had to describe the role each part played. We went through cell body, axon, dendrites, etc. and finally arrived at the word synapse. Two students were asked to come up to the front with their models to demonstrate what a synapse is. The snaps on the axons and were attached to the snaps on the dendrites. The snaps represent a synapse, which turns out to be a cool way the kids can remember the term. After this demonstration, all of the students were asked to get up and connect all of the neurons together to model a network of neurons. This was a good opportunity to start talking about what a brain is.




Starting off the unit with modeling seems to be a good way to introduce the students to the tasks that will be required of them throughout the unit: teamwork, asking questions, writing and drawing, and following instruction.

This also prompted a discussion in one of the classes between a public school teacher, a college student and myself. The public school teacher asked, "Do college students learn this way too?" As a matter of fact they do!

Model building in college courses doesn't usually involve pipe cleaners, but we did use molecular modeling kits in my organic chemistry class. As part of my introductory biology class we built clay models of developing frog embryos and cut sections so that we could better understand the spatial structure development.


This week we are dissecting sheep brains with the students. I can't wait to see how it goes. I'll report back in a week!