Kimberly: The brain is located in the head and is protected by thick skull bones called the cranium.

Tanisha: The brain has four main parts. These are the large halves of the cerebrum on top,

Kimberly: the diencephalon below,

Tanisha: the cerebellum to the rear,

Kimberly: and the brain stem below and to the front.

Tanisha: The average brain weighs about 3 pounds.

Kimberly: On average, men's brains are slightly larger than women's, but women's bodies are smaller than men's so women tend to have relatively larger brains for their body size.

Madison: 1 plus 1 is two!

Kimberly: The left brain also controls the right side of the body.

Madison: Look at that (moves right hand).

Tanisha: The right hemisphere thinks about whole things, shapes, artistic and creative activities, ideas, and insights.

Madison: La la la.

Tanisha: It also controls the left side of the body.

Cory and Nicola: The Spinal Cord

Nicola: Tiny nerve cells make up the brain and the rest of the nervous system called neurons. Without your neurons you couldn't move, think, or even live.

Cory: A typical nerve cell measures .0008 inches or 20 micrometers wide.

Nicola: There are 12 billion in the brain, and many million more in the nerves.

Cory: The nerve fibers collect at the brain stem and merges into a thick bundle of nerves called the spinal cord.

Nicola: The spinal cord is a rod of brain tissue.

Cory: Like the brain, which is safely enclosed in a rigid skull, the spinal cord is protected by a set of bones called the backbone or vertebrae.

Nicola The spinal cord runs from the brain down a tunnel of holes in your vertebrae so that impulses from all parts of the body can pass through.

Cory: This network of nerve cells is called the peripheral nervous system.

Madison: So, what is a nerve? Hey, you've got some nerve!

Chris: The main part of the nerve cell, the cell body, is called the nucleus. The cell body carries the DNA. It is the control center of the cell.

Chris: A round the cell body are lots of long spidery-looking parts. These are called dendrites. Dendrites send electrical signals from the brain along the neurons.

Keith: There is also a longer slightly thicker strand called the axon. The neuron passes signals to other neurons by way of the axon. The longest axon measures about 3 ft or 1 m. though they are microscopically thin. The axon passed the electrical signals through the neuron.

Madison: Well, how does the nervous system works with the sense of touch?

Michael: Our sense of touch helps to keep us safe.

Tidane: We use touch to help us collect information about the world.

Isabella: R receptor cells in our skin allow us to feel the objects we touch, by sending messages along the nerves to the brain.

Michael: Special types of receptors respond only to its own special feeling so you can feel sharp, hot, cold, hard, and pain separately or several of those feelings at the same time.

Tidane: Some parts of our bodies have more receptor nerves than others and are more sensitive to touch.

Isabella: That's why we can feel more with our hand and fingers than with the back of our knees.

Madison: Does the nervous system work so that I can see?

Malcolm: Yes, your eyes are linked to your brain by a cluster of nerves.

Mariah: Your eyebrow and your eyelashes keep your eye clean by keeping water and dust out. When you injure your eyes, your tear glands are sending salty clean tears, which your eyelids push across your eye. The tear duct takes it to you nose. This is why you get a runny nose when you're teary eyed.

Malcolm: When you look at an object, your eyes collect light rays on the retina. The light passes through a lens, which turns the image upside down on the retina. The retina contains light sensitive nerve cell-receptors, called rods and cones. These convert the images into nerve impulses, which travel to the brain along the optic nerve. Your brain interprets these impulses as an image, which it also turns right side up.

Tanisha: So you see, the brain and nerves are pretty important.

Kimberly: Sometimes the brain is compared with a computer in charge of an electronic network of machines and devices,

Cory: but we've learned that the brain is more complex and wonderful than any computer.

Keith: Hey, have you heard about that guy over in Oz?

Chris: Ya, he's a wizard they say he can get you anything.

Nicolas: Will the scarecrow get his brain, or is it clear that he already has one. It's enough to blow your mind, at least while your in…the Twighlight Zone.