Neuronal Communication Webinar (Primary)

BNA Event - 14th May 2020

Neuronal Communication Webinar: Thursday 14th May 10:30am (UK time/BST)

Please register by clicking here. 

This webinar will be on the topic of neuronal communication and will be aimed at primary school children (ages 5-11). We will be learning about how neurons (brain cells) 'talk' to each other and how this is key to brain function.

We are planning for this webinar to run for about 1 hour.

Important! During the webinar, we will be using Kahoot to allow you to give us your answers and ideas! 

• we will display a 'game pin' for Kahoot at the beginning of the webinar, which you will have to type into the Kahoot website 
• you can find the website to type in your pin by clicking here 
• alterntaively, type in https://kahoot.it/ into any search engine 

You will need a device that several students can share to watch the presentation on, and a method of interacting with our webinar (with kahoot or without Kahoot), you can use one of the following methods:

• A smartphone/tablet/other device per child (with kahoot up) and a computer (to watch the presentation altogether) recommended
• A computer with two tabs open (one with presentation open, and another with kahoot open)
• A computer/ other device (to watch presentation on) and paper and a pen to write down answers (If you aren't able to use Kahoot)

If you have a smartphone/tablet/another tab to hand for each child they will be able to answer questions individually, otherwise, they can work as a team.

If you didn't join us for our 'Neurons' webinar, it would be useful for you to watch it here before joining this Neuronal communcation webinar, so that you will already have made a neuron and will know the parts of a neuron, but this is not essential. 

Activity: Make a neuronal communcation model

To help us understand the mechanism by which neurons 'talk' to each other, we are going to make a model of this together, out of items that can be found around your home. 

For reference, two neurons talking to each other looks a bit like this:

You are going to need materials to make each part listed in the key above, please have these ready when the webinar begins.

Below is a suggestion of materials you can use for the model, but you can be as creative as you'd like!

• pipecleaners (if you have these, they can be used for all parts of the model)
• For the signal - coloured card or blank paper to colour in/ playdough/ modelling clay
• For the receptors - a cup/ empty yoghurt pot/ bottle lid
• For the chemicals - newspaper/ playdough/ modelling clay/ craft tissue paper/ pom poms
• If you don't have a second neuron - toilet role/kitchen role tube

Please have two neurons already made or drawn on a piece of paper before the webinar. 

If you didn't attend our 'Neurons' webinar, here's some help with making a neuron:

• Click here to watch the 'Make a Neuron' section of our recorded 'Neurons' webinar on YouTube
• Click here for instructions on how to make a pipe cleaner neuron 
• Click here to download a picture of a neuron to draw. 
• For more neuron making inspiration, have a look at our webinar gallery - they can be made out of anything you have at home!

We will be making the other parts of the model together during the webinar.

If you attended our last webinar and made a neuron, do have your neuron ready. It would be great if you could either make another neuron or have a kitchen roll tube/toilet roll tube/similar to act as the dendrite of the next neuron for the synapse model we will be making in this webinar.

For inspiration, here are some neuronal communication models we have made:

Use any materials that you have at home, you could even use sweets, be creative!

If you can and you'd like to, use a video editing app to make an animation of the neuronal communication process after the webinar. We will be showing you examples of this using the models above and what we used to make them during the webinar. These examples can also be found below:

Please register by clicking here.