Posted by My STEAM project was on the CNS and the PNS. I choose to use pipe cleaner because I wanted to show a blown up picture of the nervous system to get a better understanding of it. I decided to do the nervous system because this was the hardest section for me to understand and I thought if I spend time on doing a hands on project it would help me better understand, which it did!
Ashley’s Project was to depict the central nervous system as well as the peripheral nervous system in art form using pipe cleaners and labels. The purpose of which was to provide a physical model and representation to further her own understanding of the human nervous system. The nervous system is broken down into two main parts; the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The central nervous system (CNS) acts as the control center of the body. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is broken into two parts: Somatic and autonomic. The somatic nervous system is made up of receptors which are able to detect and observe different aspects of the world around us which we come into contact with (ie our senses, touch, smell sight, etc.) . These signals and observations are then sent to the CNS and are interpreted there. The autonomic nervous system is broken down further into three more subcategories being the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and the enteric nervous system. The autonomic nervous system can be summed up as having control over the processes in our bodies in which we have little to no conscious control over such as your heart beat, your breathing, vasodilation, etc.