This week we kicked off our science unit on the Five Senses. On Tuesday, you let me know what you already know about each of the senses and any questions you'd like answered. On Thursday we tried to determine "what makes a sense a sense". When we tried to imagine what life would be like without our senses, it became clear that our senses are how we experience the external world. Each sense is defined by the type of sensor (sense organ, sensory cell type) which responds to a specific kind of stimulus and on the region of the brain that responds to it. For example, the eyes respond to light and the ears to sound waves. The sense receptors communicate information to the brain through the nervous system. |
We learned that animals may have the same senses as humans, but they may work differently. For example, dogs noses provide them with a better sense of smell than humans and butterflies taste with their feet. | We also learned that some animals have senses we don't have. For example birds can sense the Earth's electromagnetic field which helps them navigate when they migrate and bats use echolocation. | We also learned that people have more than five senses. For example, the sense of proprioception is what enables us to close our eyes and touch our right forefinger to our left elbow. We have receptors in our muscles which tell our brain about the current length and stretch of the muscles. In this class, we are going to focus on the five main senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. |