Introduction to the senses
Sensory organs and their functions.
What's that smell? Do you hear that noise? Taste this! Look at me! Feel this, isn't it soft? When you hear, or even use these phrases, you probably stop to think about why we use them. Well, it's because of our senses. Without us even knowing, our sense organs (nose, eyes, ears, tongue and skin) are taking in information and sending it to the brain for processing. If we didn't have them, we would not be able to smell, see, hear, taste, or touch anything! Talk about a boring life.
Our senses are the physical means by which all living things see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Each sense collects information about the world and detects changes within the body. Both people and animals get all of their knowledge from their senses, and that is why our senses are so important. The sensory organs of animals enable them to detect changes in the surroundings while sensory organs of man are sensitive to all types of stimuli.
All senses depend on the working nervous system. Our sense organs start to work when something stimulates special nerve cells called receptors in a sense organ. We have five main sense organs. They are the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin. Once stimulated, the receptors send nerve impulses along sensory nerves to the brain. Your brain then tells you what the stimulus is. For example, your sound receptors would be bombarded by billions of sound waves. When these signals reach the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, we become conscious of the sound.
stimulus -> Sensory organs -> sensory nerves -> brain -> motor nerves -> response
lesson plans senses
