Neuroscience Concepts & Activities by Grade Level: Primary, Preschool - 3

The scaffolding of these concepts does not follow any particular published set of standards. They come from Dr. Janet Dubinsky's experience in the BrainU, Brain Awareness Week, and Brain Bee programs. Some text taken from the Neuroscience Core Concepts, Society for Neuroscience.

Concept Activity/Resource
The brain is an organ inside the head that controls everything our body does. The brain gets and sends signals to our bodies through the spinal cord and nerves. Outline body on big paper & draw in organs. Draw a brain and spinal cord and nerves connecting to every other organ and body part. Or Dixie Cup Nervous System (BrainLink©)
The brain makes it possible for us to move, see, hear, smell, taste, feel, keep our balance, think, emote or feel happy/sad/etc, and most importantly LEARN! All the regular primary school activities for understanding the senses.
The brain is so important it has to be protected by our skull. When we do fast activities, like bicycle riding or ice skating, we need to protect our brain even more with helmets. Egg drop demonstration. Jello brain drop demonstration.
We use our brain when we recognize how other people feel by reading their faces and imagining how they feel. Explore how we feel in certain situations. Use age-appropriate literature for illustrations.
We use our brains when we learn to move and think and behave nicely among others. Every time we learn something, we change our brains, since the brain must learn how to control the body. Emphasize that we're training our brain as we train our body to climb, jump, play games, learn, etc.

Neuroscience Concepts & Activities - Grade 4-6   7-8   9-12