EDC 448 TEXT SETBIOLOGY

UNIT 10: THE HUMAN BODY

CHAPTER 35 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Sarah Mentzer9/24/12

GUIDING QUESTIONS1. Imagine you had to give up one of your senses for a day. Which

one would you choose and why?2. What are the main differences between the somatic nervous

system and the autonomic nervous system? If you lost control of one of these systems, which would be a more severe immediate lose?

3. Do you think we have a clear understanding of how the brain is connected to the mind and the emotions?

PRENTICE HALL BIOLOGY

The textbook, Biology, is broken down into 10 Units, with 3-4 chapters in each unit. Each chapter contains bolded vocabulary and key concepts that are summarized at the end of each chapter in the study guide. There are plenty of graphics, photos and diagrams; along with experiments to relate the literature to the students. The chapters are broken down into smaller sections so the information is not overwhelming. The topics could be overly complex but with supportive scaffolding through teaching, the concepts could be easily understood.

Quantitative Analysis of this text: The method I used to do the quantitative analysis for this text was the Flesch-Kincaid method. I used a paragraph from types of tissue in the human body. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade level assigned was 11. The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score assigned was 43. Which means as far as grade level it scored fairly high because the majority of high school students seem to be taking Biology in either 9 th or 10th grade, but the Reading ease score marks it as being of average difficulty. The text falls right in the middle of difficult and easy. I think this text would be acceptable to teach younger grades. As the teacher I would have to take into account they might need more support, scaffolding, from me in order to understand these concepts.

For the Qualitative Analysis of this text as far as Levels of Meaning and Purpose, the information included is fairly straight forward. It is a science text so there is minimal figurative language, and other than the vocabulary involved I would not consider it extremely complex. The structure of the text is also fairly straight forward it is very well organized clearly broken down into Units, Chapters, and Sections. I think the text does require higher knowledge demands. The students are going to need some background knowledge from general science classes to jump into the concepts in Biology. The vocabulary can be challenging and students will probably need to be guided through some of the topics will be foreign knowledge to them.

Miller, Kenneth R., and Joseph Levine. Biology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2002. Print.

“REALLY? THE BRAIN GETS REWIRED IF ONE OF THE SENSES IS LOST.”

This is a New York Times article describing how when a sense is lost the brain gets rewired to compensate for that lose. I love the idea of using this article as part of my text set because it takes the information that students are learning in the classroom and relates it to research findings in the field. I think it is so important to stay up to date on new develops in the research field to help inspire students to connect what we are learning in the classroom to future career development.

For the qualitative analysis of this text as far as Levels of Meaning and Purpose, the information is straight forward as they discuss the findings of recent research. They do not use figurative language or complex meaning. The Structure of the article is well organized it is fairly short and to the point. The only set back of this article is that it does require higher Knowledge Demands. The target audience for the NY times is not 9th and 10th graders, so the article is written for the mature adult reader. The vocabulary in the article is fairly advanced, but many of the terms are covered in the chapter we are learning. I would not be comfortable assigning this article for home reading because of the complex terminology, but I would assign the reading at the beginning of class to create discussion about developments in the field and relate the information to the senses which are covered in this chapter.

O'Connor, Anahad. "Really? The Brain Gets Rewired If One of the Senses Is Lost." The New York Times. N.p., 6 Aug. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/really-the-brain-gets-rewired-if-one-of-the-senses-is-lost/>.

“PROBE THE BRAIN”

This is a great interactive activity called “Probe the Brain”. Where it allows students to pin different areas on the brain and it shows you the correlating movement in the body. They do give a brief history of a Canadian brain surgeon who was responsible for mapping the brain’s motor cortex. This interactive activity allows students to relive his exploration of the brain, by letting them shock and observe.

For the qualitative analysis of this text, as far as Levels of Meaning and Purpose, the text is very straightforward. They give a brief history, and the rest of the site is just the interactive model. There is no figurative language and the meaning of the text is not complex. The Structure of the site is well organized, there is not a lot of information on the site to find distracting. The Knowledge Demands of the site are appropriate, the site is geared towards students learning about the nervous system.

"PBS Teachers." PBS. PBS, 1 Oct. 2001. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org

BRAIN FUNCTION, ANATOMY & DIAGRAM

This site gives a 3-D Interactive Model of the Anatomy of the human brain. Allowing you to view an image of the human brain from several different angles and depths. You can look at the whole brain, a section of half the brain, and the structures of the inner brain. The model allows students to pick a view of the brain, and then click on each part of the brain to explain what structure they are viewing and what its function in the body would be.

For the qualitative analysis of this text, for Levels of Meaning and Purpose, the text is very direct. They present the information and images clearly with no figurative language or hidden meanings. The Structure of the site is very well organized. You are presented with several different images on how to view the brain, starting with the outside structures and working towards the inner structures. The Knowledge Demands to use this diagram are not complex, they explain clearly each structure and even describe what the purpose is in the body. The site is not geared specifically to 9th and 10th graders, but the information included would not be overly complex for that age group.

"Brain Function, Anatomy & Diagram | Body Maps." Brain Function, Anatomy & Diagram | Body Maps. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/brain>.

“DESIGNER DRUGS: EFFECT ON BRAIN CHEMISTRY ‘LIKE ECSTASY’”

There is a big focus in this chapter on how drugs affect the nervous system. This article from BBC, looks at the effects on brain chemistry from drugs like ecstasy. They look at the physical reaction that the brain has after taking drugs like ecstasy and similar stimulates. I like the thought of using this article as one of my text sets to show the students the connection between information they learn in the classroom and other drug prevention programs and research happening in the real world.

For Levels of Meaning, the information in the article does not have hidden messages or use figurative language. The Structure of the article is well organized and presented in a clear fashion. The Knowledge Demands for this article would be considered high. The students would need some background knowledge about drugs. The article is written for the mature adult reader so it may be slightly complex for the average 9th or 10th grader to comprehend. The vocabulary in the article is fairly advanced; they discuss some drugs that I’ve never heard of before so I wouldn’t expect my students to have prior knowledge of those drugs either. Again this is not an article that I would assign for home reading, but I think students would be fine to read it together in the classroom with

support if they don’t understand anything in the article.

"Designer Drugs: Effect on Brain Chemistry 'like Ecstasy'" BBC News. BBC, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16185373>.

“HOW NERVES WORK.”

This is an excellent article that breaks down how nerves work in connection with the entire nervous system. They go into great detail about the processes involved and use many of the same concepts and vocabulary terminology used in the chapter. They have a bunch of simplified visual diagrams showing different parts of the nervous system to help visual learners. The article may go too in depth for what we would be covering in the classroom but I would still consider it a great reference tool.

For Levels of Meaning, the text in this article is very clearly stated. The information included would be considered fairly complex just because of the content but the language is clearly stated. The structure of the article is very well organized; it begins with the breakdown of different types of nerves and goes all the way through nervous system disorders. I would not consider the Knowledge Demands for this article very high because the information included parallels what we would be covering in the chapter closely, just with more in depth detail. The vocabulary is geared towards students, and does not seem overwhelming.

Freudenrich, Craig, PhD. "How Nerves Work." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/nerve.htm>.

The Discovery Channel has collected a variety of images that are related to neurology, ranging from real brain surgery, to new developments in mice testing antidepressants in the neuroscience field, to photos from the 1950s showing the first recording of a patients brain activity. The images are beautiful and help demonstrate how complex and intricate the neurology field has become. Some of the images are fairly graphic, and may be disturbing to some of the students.

For Levels of Meaning, there is not a lot of actual text involved except for a brief summary of explaining each image. The text that is included is brief and to the point. The Structure of the images is not well organized. They jump from past to present, to images of surgery, to images of mice. It does keep the viewer’s attention because you don’t know to expect next. The Knowledge Demands for this link would not be considered high, you would not need prior knowledge to enjoy viewing the image and hearing about their history.

"Curiosity." Discovery Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/neurology-pictures.htm>.

“NEUROLOGY PICTURES”

QUIZ WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BRAIN?

The Discovery Channel created this ten question quiz, “What do you know about the brain” This could be a fun activity to use for the students in the lesson plan. It has more random facts about the brain than it does closely follow the information in the chapter, but I still think it could be a fun activity for them to do. We could see who was able to get the most correct out of the class.

For Levels of Meaning, there is not a lot of text involved in the quiz, except for the actual questions and the quick responses if you answered incorrectly. The information that is provided is concise and to the point. The Structure of the quiz, is fairly well organized. The questions do not really follow any precise order except for they are all questions related to the brain and nervous system. The Knowledge Demands for this quiz would be considered very high if the students were expected to get all of the answers correct. I would not expect my students to get all of the answers correct, because I didn’t even get all of the answers correct when I took the quiz. I think the students could just use this quiz to test what they knew, and use it to start discussion.

"Curiosity." Curiosity. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/cognitive-neuroscience/brain-quiz.htm>.

5 ADVANCES IN BRAIN SCIENCE?

This is an article from the discovery channel that covers 5 new advances in brain science. It discusses all the advances in technologies that we have for imaging the brain and the nervous system, as well as our ability to implant electrodes that can record signal impulses, and how psychologist can now use Intelligence Studies to study the brain. This article would be very interesting to use as part of my text set, because it shows students how scientists are connecting technology to science to make new advances in the field.

The Levels of Meaning for this text are very clearly written. The language used is appropriate for a student audience. The Structure of the article is clearly organized, and it flows from each topic with an easy description of each new advance in brain science. The Knowledge Demand for this article is fairly low. Students would need limited prior knowledge to understand the advances that they are discussing, they give a clear and simple description of each advance in science in the article.

Scheve, Tom. "Curiosity." Discovery Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/5-ways-science-studying-brain.htm>.

UNDERSTANDING BRAIN SCIENCE

This is a 2:33 video on understanding the science of the brain. The topic is addressed by Dr. Siegel, The Executive Direction of the Mindsight Institute. It discusses how far science has come in understanding the brain and nervous system, and how much we still do not understand. The video presents several questions for students to think about concerning how much we still have to learn about the brain/mind connection.

For Levels of Meaning, the information provided in the video is fairly complex only because of the concepts they are discussing. He is talking about scientific discoveries that have yet to be made. I think the video is appropriate for a student audience because even though the information is dense, it will really get them thinking. The Structure of the video is well organized, he clearly states the advances that have been made in the field, and then addresses what we still need to discover. The Knowledge Demands for this video are fairly low. The students would not need a lot of prior knowledge to be able to watch the video and think about the questions being presented.

Understanding Brain Science. Perf. Dr Siegel. The Discovery Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/d-siegel-understanding-brain-science.htm>.