Class Activities

Gossip

Students can get an appreciation of the complexity of the communication task of the senses and the nervous system by playing the old game of "gossip." This is how you play: line the students up side-by- side. Explain that you will whisper something into the ear of the first student and that person must whisper in the ear of the next person and so on until the message reaches the last individual. You needn't give the first person anything more complex than a commonplace observation such as, "I hope you feel O.K. today." This will end up being totally "mutated" by the time it gets to the last student and a lot of fun when you get that person to say what he/she heard.

Reference: Poritsky, R. 1992. Neuroanatomy: A Functional Atlas of Parts and Pathways. Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus.

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