Human Biology I
Monday, August 13, 2012
KEY TOPICS FOR BLOCK BOOK
Nov 26. "Inner" Organs and "Outer" Organs--how is our relationship to them different?
Nov 27. Describe the eye as it appears to us from without--shapes and coloring. How can the pupil be black when the eye is full of light? Why is the iris of a newborn frequently blue, even when its eyes will be brown later? (Relate this to the blue of the sky.) Drawing of the eye.
Nov 28. Labeling of the eye drawing. Short descriptions of the different parts of the eye.
Nov 29. The path of the light through the eye. The blind spot: explain. Accommodation: 4 sketches with explanation (include the working together of ciliary muscle, radial fibers and lens.) Near- and far-sightedness and how they are corrected (with 6 sketches).
Nov 30. (For Monday measure the shortest distance in cm. of clear vision looking at 12 font for yourself and a parent) Differences between rods and cones. Two reasons why we are more sensitive to movement in our peripheral vision. Drawing of Retina.
Dec 3. Presbyopia Table. Why don’t we see as sharply at dusk? Why don’t we see a weak star when we look right at it? Rhodopsin: when is it broken down and when regenerated? How does this affect our vision?
Dec 4. Six extrinsic eye muscles & the movements they produce (w. drawing). Strabism. Eye disorders/abberations: Glaucoma (Kerby Puckett), Cataracts.
Dec 5. Eye disorders continued. Handout of the optic tract with the primary, secondary and tertiary visual centers. Handouts that show how our seeing is not only a bodily activity, but that seeing things in different ways includes the organizing and interpreting activity of our thinking.
Dec 6. “There is more to seeing than meets the eye. ”
THE EAR / HEARING. Compare our Auricle (the outer projecting portion of the ear) to those of several animals. Drawing: the Organs of the Ear.
Dec 7. The path of sound through the ear. Drawing of the middle ear with stapedius and tensor tympanii.
Dec 10. Altitude effect. Why are the tensor tympanii and stapedius muscles important? Whey do we need a middle ear?: leverage and the “stiletto effect”.
Three drawings of the cochlea. Explain how sound waves passing through the cochlea cause the Organ of Corti and its hair cells to create nerve impulses to brain.
Dec 11. Table of human hearing decline (in Herz) with age. Table of maximum frequencies heard by humans and some animals. Spiral sketch showing sensitivity in the cochlea to different sound frequencies. Directional hearing (angle and time differential).
Dec 12. SENSE OF EQUILIBRIUM (Balance). Three semicircular canals and how they function (w. sketch). Ampula sketch and explanation. Utriculus sketch w. explanation. The Elevator effect. How does our body react if we spin around too much at an amusement park. Effect of inversion glasses after three days (who wins, sight or equilibrium?). Sense for the center of the earth.
Dec 13. Brief mention of Christina’s dilemma. Movements we can make without looking. Writing with the “other” hand. We school our sense of movement in many ways. Handout of girl’s face and the “sketching movements” that the eye makes.
Dec 14. What organ enables us to perceive our movements and forms that we see? The Kinesthetic Sense (Sense of movement, proprioception). Drawing of a Muscle Spindle. Explanation of where they are found, where we find them most frequently, and how they work. Drawing of Larynx.
Dec 17. Additional drawings of the Larynx (with explanations) showing how pitch is modulated and tone is created. References to whispering, coughing, etc.
Dec 18. Handouts on “articulation” and speech centers of the brain. Dictation to speech centers. Handout comparing hand and foot. Handout of the foot. Drawing of foot (side view).
Dec 19, What does learning to walk require? What are the anatomical consequences? (Four handouts that illustrate those consequences).
Dec 20. Handouts: Uprightness as Activity; Cow Skull; Human Skull; Uprightness and the Human Head; Human and Ape; and dictation: Sense Perception, Uprightness, Inner Activity.
Faculty: Michael Holdrege, High School Math and Science Teacher
Class Dates: November 26th-December 1st
Curriculum Area: Morning Lesson Block
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