Day 4

Another thunderstorm rolled through overnight knocking out power.  So it was no instant coffee and I had to improvise my lesson on neurotransmission. Before class, I looked around the available supplies to find materials to make a long “rope” neuron.  I did find some nylon string, some ribbons, some ping-pong balls and a plastic container.  Used a thick roll of old calculator paper for the action potential.

But it was not yet time to see the rope neuron in action.  I asked the nuns to build neurons from colored clay that I found.  When everyone was finished, the nuns visited with each other to explain their creations.

Then it was time for the rope neuron demonstration.  I asked several nuns to volunteer to hold different parts of the model.  The dendrites were ribbons, the cell body was some rope, the axon was the nylon string, the plastic container was the terminal and the ping-pong balls inside the container were neurotransmitters.  I threw some small beads to the dendrites.  When these were “bound by receptors on dendrites”, I threw the roll of paper (the action potential) down the axon where it caused the ping-pong balls to be released by the terminal.

I did not get the explosion of the neurotransmitters as I have with other models I have built, but the nuns all gave out a loud laugh.

With only a few periods of class remaining, it was time to turn to the senses. I started by explaining the anatomy of the eye by drawing an eyeball on the white board. I mentioned how the cornea and lens bend light.  I gave groups of nuns magnifying glasses and told them find a wall.  Then holding a piece of white paper against the wall, the nuns drew the image that went through the magnifying glass.  When we go back together in the classroom, we discussed the results of the experiment.  All of the nuns noticed that the image projected onto the paper was upside and reversed left and right.  I explained this is just like the lens of their eyes.

Further discussion centered around the retina of the eye and photoreceptors.  We talk about rods and cones, but I mentioned that there is one spot of the eye where there are no photoreceptors, the blind spot.  I showed the nuns how to put an image into their blind spots and they spent about 15 minutes experimenting with different drawing to show how the brain fills in the blind spot with what it expects.

We ended class with another question and answer session.  Before leaving for tea, I told the nuns that we had only one more day of class, but still had to discuss touch, taste, smell, memory, the autonomic nervous system and much, much more to discuss.  Of course, it will be impossible to cover everything.

I ended the day with a spirited game of badminton just outside the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.  Games were first to seven points, but if you hit the birdie over the wall, you automatically forfeit the game.