The Nervous System

6th Grade Health

Learning Target:
I will learn about the nervous system.
Success Criteria:
To be successful I will know:
• The parts of the Central Nervous System, their basic
functions, and be able to label them.
• What a Neuron is, its parts, and be able to label them.
• The function of the sensory nerves.
• The function of the motor nerves.
• How much the avg. adult human brain weighs.
• About how fast messages travel along neurons.
 The Nervous System…
 Itmakes sure all the different systems in
the body work together.
 Maintains your consciousness
 Coordinates what you sense or feel and
your reactions to your senses
 Responsible for your learning and memory
 Brain
 Spinal cord / spinal column / spine / vertebrae
 Nerves
 Nerve tissue
 Central Nervous Peripheral Nervous
System (CNS) System
 Includes the brain and  Includes all the other
spinal cord. nerves in your body.
 The CNS is  12 pairs of cranial

surrounded by bone- nerves coming from

your head
skull and vertebrae.
 31 pairs of spinal
 Fluid and tissue also nerves coming from
insulate and protect your backbone
the brain and spinal
cord.
Question:
 How big is the brain? How much does the
brain weigh?
Answer:
 The adult human brain weighs
approximately 3 lbs. A newborn human
brain weighs a little less than 1 pound on
average.
 Areas of the brain
 The brain is composed of three parts:
1. cerebrum (seat of consciousness)
2. cerebellum (control center of movement)
3. medulla oblongata (part of the unconscious
brain)
 The next several slides will show the
parts of the brain and the functions of
each part.
Another look at the brain…
 What is a neuron?

A neuron is a nerve cell. The brain is

made up of approximately 100 billion
neurons.
 The neuron is the functional unit of the
nervous system. Humans have about 100
billion neurons in their brain alone! While
they vary in size and shape, all neurons
have three parts.
Parts of a neuron and the direction of
nerve message transmission…
1. Dendrites receive
information from
another cell and
transmit the message
to the cell body.
2. The cell body
contains the nucleus
and is the main part
of the neuron.
3. The axon sends
messages away from
the cell body.
 Types of neurons…
1. Sensory neuron: gathers information
and sends it to your brain or to your
spinal cord.
2. Interphase neuron: receives information
from the sensory neuron and passes it
along to the motor neuron.
3. Motor neuron: carries the information to
muscles or glands in the body.
Nerve Cells
 Nervous System Video…

Watch the video provided in the link below

for more brief info on the nervous system…

http://www.kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59295&cat_id=20607