Brain Hats

This morning we finished the Brain, Brain, What is a Brain activity where the monks shared how a particular object was similar and different from a real brain.  Then we moved on to the basic neuroanatomy including a description of the different parts of the brain (e.g., cortex, cerebellum, brain stem) and cerebrospinal fluid. 

To demonstrate how the cerebrospinal fluid helps protect the brain when the head is bumped, I put a raw egg into one empty water bottle and another raw egg in another water bottle filled full with water.  We all went outside and I dropped both bottles about 30 feet.  Although both eggs ended up broken, the egg in the empty water bottle was completely smashed while the egg in the full water bottle just had a few cracks in the shell.

After tea break, we moved on to the cerebral cortex.  The monks were given sheets of paper with the right hemisphere and left hemisphere drawn.  The monk first colored the different lobes of the brain and then taped the hemispheres together to get a brain hat.  

Brain Hats