Brain Surgery Across the Ages: Stones to Advanced Technologies

Barbara Prillaman

In this unit, high school students will answer the questions: How has thinking differed from past versus present in how to study the brain? and How do these changes in thinking give us a better understanding of the brain? Following the Common Core Standards, students will read for meaning and interpret multiple sources (written and visual texts) to help students identify tools used to study the nervous system and describe advances made in neuroscience. Each student will become an expert of a personal “brain” account to share with his group members. Together, these groups will focus on the similarities and differences of their accounts highlighting the brain’s structure and functions. Hands-on learning experiences will allow for students to concentrate on the construction of their knowledge regarding past tools by re-creating a brain surgery/trepanation procedure, creation of brain mobiles to highlight the brain’s structures and functions, and a sheep’s brain dissection to see the actual structures.