Have you ever held a brain in your hands? Have you ever thought about what it would feel like? Our bodies are amazing functioning machines, with the brain and spinal cord at the core of that functioning. The students got to learn all about that today at STEM Camp and even got to hold a brain and a spinal cord. There was even a brain cut in half so you could actually get a glimpse of what the inside looked like! The students were really surprised at really how “squishy” the brain is. They learned about the importance of the dura covering the brain in addition to the skull itself. The students were also amazed at how narrow and flimsy the spinal cord was. They really enjoyed today…even the students who weren’t too sure about having a real brain in the room at first. In addition to the exciting hands-on features of today’s events, the students conducted nerve experiments on each other.
In robotics today, they finished building their robots if they needed to and then started on their first challenges. The students had a lot of fun trying to figure out the initial challenges and changing up the program code on their robots. It’s always great to see the students working together to problem solve and test their new solutions!
In their words…
- When you are right handed you use the left half of the brain
- The brain has a protective cover called the Dura mater
- You have the same number of brain cells when you are a baby as when you are grown up
- The frontal cortex is not essential to living
- There was a man who had a train spike impaled through his head and lived
Conversation Starters…
- So what was it like to hold a brain today? Was it what you thought it would be?
- Why is the frontal cortex not essential to living?
- What is important about the dura matter?
- What challenges did you work on today at Robotics?
- How do you like programming the robot?
Photo of the day…
Aren’t they a great looking group!!??
Click here to check out all the pictures we took today. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @seebluestemcamp for real-time updates about what your kids are experiencing throughout the day!