Overview of Lesson 

Have students reflect on what the body would be like if it were only skeleton and muscles. It might be interesting to look at but it would be like a museum model; it would just sit there unable to do anything. Have student discuss: What  else is necessary to make the body functional? Guide them in reasoning:

1. The body must have a way of sensing its surroundings (seeing, hearing, etc.), hence sensory organs.
2. It must have a way of interpreting what it senses and deciding what action to take. This is the role of the brain.
3. There must be connections between the sensory organs and the brain and between the brain and the muscles.

These three things make up the voluntary nervous system. There must also be energy to run the whole system. This is a separate system (energy metabolism) addressed in Lesson B-9.

The robot game described in the text will give students a conceptual working understanding of these three parts of the nervous system.  You can add any amount of additional information concerning sensory organs by typing into your browser:

anatomy of the ____ (type the name of the organ in the blank)