Key Stage 4 –Nervous models

Pupil worksheet

A model network

To drive from your house to a town hundreds of kilometres away, you will have to travel on many different roads. In order for the road network to function roads have to join up with each other.

This is a good model of your nervous system. It is a complex network of neurons. In order for impulses to get from one place to another they have to be able to pass from neuron to neuron.

The gaps between neurons are called synapses

There is a small gap where the end of one neuron joins with another. Professor Charles Sherrington, who worked at the University of Oxford in the early 20th century, named this a synapse.

An electrical impulse cannot travel across a gap so another mechanism needs to be used. When the impulse reaches the end of the neuron chemicals called neurotransmitters are released into the gap. These diffuse across and bind to receptors in the next neuron which sets off a new impulse.

Drugs and toxins can interfere with synapsesEcstasy (MDMA) works by increasing the amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. It blocks serotonin re-uptake pumps on the pre-synaptic neuron. High levels of serotonin induces feelings of euphoria.

Botulinum toxin (botox) is made by bacteria and causes muscle paralysis by blocking impulses between motor neurons and muscles. It does this by binding to the neurotransmitter receptor on muscles.

Your task

You are going to use a model to create a stop-capture animation of what happens at a synapse.

What to do

1. Work in a pair or small group. 2. Research what happens at a synapse. Use textbooks, the internet and the

images supplied on this worksheet.3. Decide what materials you are going to use to create your model. Plan a

simple storyboard for your animation on paper.4. Use a tablet/phone or camera to create the animation.

http://www.oxfordsparks.net/video/youve-got-nerve

brain

spinal cord

neurons

The nervous system

http://www.oxfordsparks.net/video/youve-got-nerve

A diagram to show two neurons and a close-up view of the synapse in between them

The connection between a motor neuron and a muscle is known as a neuromuscular junction. Impulses from the neuron are transmitted to the muscle cells by the movement of neurotransmitters across a synapse.

Motor neuron

Direction of impulse

Muscle cells

Close-up of synapse

Muscle cells

Direction of impulse