Brain/Nervous System Theme Page

This CLN page has links to educational resources on the Brain/Nervous System for students who wish to explore further.

[The] Ear

A brief explanation, interesting tidbits, and about a dozen hearing experiments/activities for K-12 students.

Five Senses (SEDL)

This teaching unit has seven lesson plans through which K-1 students learn about their senses within mathematics, science and language learning activities. Background information for the teacher is included in each lesson. Lessons 1 and 7 are introductory and culminating lessons. In lesson 3, students learn that their sense of hearing helps them learn from each other through communication. They also learn that sound can produce patterns.

Five Senses (UtahLink)

This kindergarten curriculum unit from Utah contains background information for the teacher and 12 activities through which students can explore their senses.

[The] Five Senses - Hearing

A three day teaching unit for grade 3 students on hearing.

Hearing Health: Quick Time Movie

A brief, Quicktime animated movie explaining how the ear works. Content is delivered both textually and orally.

How We Perceive Sound: The Ear

A site with descriptive information about the three components of the ear: The Outer Ear, The Middle Ear and The Inner Ear. The content is written for high school students.

How Your Ear Works

A small animated illustration showing how parts of your ear work together in order to send a signal to your brain so you can hear a sound. (Requires Shockwave)

Human Anatomy On-line Animations: Ear

An animated cut-away view of the human ear along with a brief explanation (that opens up as a separate page). Java required.

Human Body: Senses Unit: Hearing

Written for upper elementary students, this lesson plan uses a coat hanger to help students understand how a whale hears. The lesson is part of the BCTF Daybook.

[The] Incredible Sense of Hearing

This site features detailed diagrams of the elements of hearing. For high school students only.

[An] Interactive Anatomy of the Ear

A self-guided interactive tour that shows and explains the parts and functions of the ear. Shockwave is required. Note: The language of the site, although delivered orally, is at too high a level for young students.

Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World

The goal of this site is to help high school students understand how the brain and senses work together. The following links will lead students to information about the sense of hearing:

• Locating a Mouse by Its Sound
  These articles describe:
  A Brain Map of Auditory Space;
  The Value of Having Two Ears;
  Bat Sounds and Human Speech.
• The Quivering Bundles that Let Us Hear
  These articles discuss the following topics:
  Signals From a Hair Cell;
  The Goal: Extreme Sensitivity and Speed;
  Tip Links Pull Up the Gates of Ion Channels.

Smile Program Biology Index

Teachers participating in the SMILE (Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement) summer session programs each create a single concept lesson plan. This database has 60 lesson plans in the section on Anatomy & Physiology that deal directly with the human body's senses and systems. Caution: Since there is a wide number of authors who have contributed to the database, the detail and quality of the lesson plans will vary.

Virtual Tour of the Ear: Hearing Mechanism

This site has identified more than 75 components to the human hearing mechanism and categorized them under Outer Ear, Middle Ear, Inner Ear, Auditory Nerve, and Central Auditory Pathway. Each category has links to one or more external web sites that provide detailed information (e.g., descriptions, diagrams, photographs) of that specific element within our hearing mechanism (e.g., ossicles, auditory nerve, outerhair cells). From this page, you can also access a similar virtual tour on hearing disorders.

Note: The sites listed above will serve as a source of curricular content in the sense of hearing. For other resources in Science (e.g., curricular content in Earth Science, General Science, Life Science, or Physical Science), or for lesson plans and theme pages, click the "previous screen" button below. Or, click here if you wish to return directly to the CLN menu which will give you access to educational resources in all of our subjects.