Mystery box – using touch
In this activity, students use only their sense of touch to put sandpaper samples in order from finest grade to coarsest grade.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
explain why touch is an important sense
be aware that receptors in the skin are responsible for touch
have an understanding of places where the sense of touch is useful in everyday life especially for those with disabilities.
Skin cross-section
Skin is made of layers of flat, stacked cells laid down into thin sheets and contains nerves, sensory receptors, sweat and oil glands and follicles of hairs.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
student worksheet.
Nature of science
Some great inventions or technological advances have come about as a result of someone trying to solve a problem affecting a disadvantaged group in society. Braille is a system of raised dots enabling blind people to read. It was devised by Louis Braille in the 19th century. He was blind himself and his invention is still in use today.
Related content
Discover more about the structure and function of touch whilst also exploring some of the key science ideas and concepts.
Activity idea
In the Two-point discrimination activity explore how the receptors responsible for the sensation of light touch are distributed over the body.
