CTS Guide: Brain and the Nervous System pp. 92-93- Section IV Research Summaries

The Brain

• ·Many younger students think of the brain as a mental organ necessary for thinking and remembering things. However, they often do not think of the brain as informing our behavior and reactions to things. Older students begin to associate the brain with our senses (Driver et al. 1994).

• Johnson and Wellman (1982): Children and adults, when questioned about the brain and activities that involve the brain, most knew the brain as an internal organ and some regarded the mind as additional to the brain. The brain was regarded as a mental organ necessary for thinking, dreaming, remembering, and knowing facts. However, the brain was not always recognized as needed for overt behaviors. Young children associate the brain with feelings (emotions) but not with senses. Only older children associated the brain with both voluntary and involuntary acts. Elementary age children recognize the brain as needed for many activities. By age 10 most children recognize the brain as helping other body parts function. By age 14 the brain was recognized as essential for all behaviors. 

 Nerves

• Gellert (1962) and Cary (1985): Elementary age children have little knowledge of nerves.