How and why do scientists color brains?
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Alignment
3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
3-PS2-4. Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.
4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Learning Outcomes
- Students learn the importance of recognizing structures in a biological sample, especially in the context of health.
- Students learn the methods of creating contrast in an image.
- Students learn about chemical specificity that allows scientists to see parts of living things.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the colors of the brain?
2. What information can we get by looking at the shape of different body parts?
3. Parts of the body are the same color, but what is different about them where some parts will be stained black while other parts won’t?
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Vocabulary
Cell body: the control center of a neuron, that compute the information received by other neurons and decides when to send an output message through the axon; the cell body contains the nucleus
Dissection: methodically cut up a body/organ to study its inner parts
Ethical: about the moral principles of the topic you are talking about, for example science
Brain: an organ located in the skull of human and other vertebrates, that serves as the control center for the nervous system.
Spinal Cord: a thick bundle of nerves and brain cells that extends from the brain down through the cavity of the backbone and connects with nerves throughout the body to carry information to and from the brain.
Neurons: brain cells responsible for sending and receiving messages. The brain’s post office!
Myelin: protecting layer that wraps around nerve fibers (nerves). Myelin is made mostly of fatty substances. Just like the coating on an electrical cable, myelin insulates the nerves, and helps neuron's electrical signals travel further and faster.
Review
The science of studying the cells and tissues of an organ is called histology.
Scientists who look at cells under the microscope must use a technique called staining in order to see (structures) that would usually be all the same color.
Golgi staining is a technique invented by the Italian scientist Camillo Golgi that allows scientists to make brain cells visible under the microscope.
