The human senses

The human body is a beautifully engineered structure. The body has a general plan. We all have arms, legs, a head, ears, and eyes on the outside of our bodies. We also have similar parts on the inside of our bodies. We all have one heart, two lungs, one brain, two kidneys, and one stomach.

Understanding and learning about the human body is a complicated subject. If you just take an organ or system and emphasize its function, you must tell students how the system fits into the rest of the body's functions.

You can introduce the parts of the body, both internal and external, by using the organs that allow humans to operate their senses. Thenervous system controls the actions and sensations of all the parts of your body by using a complex network of nerves, which carry electrical signals to and from the brain. The brain and spinal cord compose the central nervous system, acting as the central clearing house. One part of your nervous system controls your body's relationship to the external environment (somatic) and another part controls your body's internal organs (autonomic). The human body has five major senses which operate to gather information from the world around us, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Any stimulus to one of the sense areas is detected by sensory nerves and is sent to the brain for interpretation.