Reaction Time

Check Your Reaction Time

Page 73

By: Allie and Kayla W.

Tennessee State Stadard GLE 0707.1.3

Describe the function of different organ systems and how collectively they enable complex multicellular organisims to survive.

SPI 0707.1.3- Explain the basic functions of a major organ system.

You need all of your senses to tell you when you need to react suddenly and quickly.

Take this test to find out just how quick you are!

Materials Needed: Scissors, pencil, white paper, glue or tape, markers or crayons,ruler

Step 1: Place the ruler on the paper and trace around it.


Step 2: Cut out the strip, and divide it into six equal parts.


Step 3: Color each section of the paper strip a different color. Label the bottom strip fast and the top strip slow.

Last Step: Tape or glue the paper strip to the ruler, and let the fun begin!!

What to do: Have a friend hold the top of the ruler. Place your hand at the bottom with fingers slightly open. When your friend releases the ruler, see how fast you can catch it!

I have a slow reaction time. :(

My niece, Chloe, has no reaction time. It's harder than it looks! :)~

What exactly is our senses? 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 or without the body. We use all of our senses every day whether we realize it or not. Good observers use all of their senses. Observing your surroundings is a very important scientific skill as it helps you to be more aware of your surroundings and more accurate about what you are observing.

Q: Which sense do you use mainly in this experiment?

A: Sight! The sense of sight sends nerve signals to the brain when it sees the ruler being dropped. Signals are then sent back out to the muscles in the arm and hand to catch the ruler.

Why does this happen? All senses, including sight, depend on the working nervous system. Our sense organs start to work when something stimulates special nerve cells in sense organs called receptors.We have five main sense organs : the eyes, nose, ears, skin, and tongue. Once stimulated, the nerve receptors send impulses along sensory nerves to the brain.Your brain tells you what the stimulus is, and then sends signals out to our motion system telling us how to react to the stimulus.

This lesson could be used in the classroom to meet both science and math standards. In science, it would be a great way of introducing the senses and talking about them, particularly the sense of sight. After the senses have been discussed, you could teach how the brain sends signals to your body making each sense work. In older grades, you could teach about the nervous system and the brain and how they work together. In math, you could have students graph their reactions times based on which color they grabbed when testing their reaction time. Older students could time how long it took them to catch the ruler using a stopwatch, and then find the mean, median, mode, and range of the data. They could also use the data to compare their reactions times to that of other students' reaction times.

Some Neat Sense experiments:

www.kids-science-experiments.com/cat_senses.html

Click Here to View Our Mini Lesson Plan