Learning Goals and Objectives: Brain and Nervous System

Enduring Understandings

• What you think of as your "self" is, in fact, the sum total of the chemical and electrical activity in your brain and nervous system.
• Our brain consists of different sections which handle different functions.
• Different parts of the brain may produce conflicting impulses or information which the brain must synthesize.
• Altering the chemistry of our brain alters our perception, behavior, and personality.

Essential Questions

• How do chemical and electrical actions produce personality, perception, and behavior?
• How do the functions of different areas of the brain give us insight into behavior?

Core Skills

• Predict the effect of a drug, given its action on the brain and nervous system.
• Analyze a situation where reactions of your "old brain" might influence your perception of events.

Foundational Knowledge

• Describe the differences between dualist and monist conceptions of the brain, and detail the problems with monism 
• Describe the structure and functions of the neuron.
• Draw a diagram of the pathways of communication within and between neurons.
• List three of the major neurotransmitters and describe their functions.
• Describe the structures and function of the “old brain” and its influence on behavior.
• Explain the structure of the cerebral cortex (its hemispheres and lobes) and the function of each area of the cortex.
• Define the concepts of brain plasticity, neurogenesis, and brain lateralization.

Many of these objectives (particularly the foundational knowledge items) were taken from the Stangor text (CC-BY-NC-SA). See course credits for more information.