Subscribe

6th grade · Science · Unit 2 of 6

Our Senses

Eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.

What your child practices

Practices natural sensory systems: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It follows the Grade 6 science skill descriptors on natural and technical sensory systems in the New Brunswick curriculum.

Alaska content standards learning standard: MS-LS1-8 · sensory receptors that send messages to the brain

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
  2. In the eye, the retina has cells that detect light. The optic nerve carries messages to the brain.
  3. Basic tastes include sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.
  4. Pain is helpful: it warns you about danger.

Example: Which part of the eye has the cells that detect light? Light passes through the front of the eye to the back. The back lining with light-sensing cells is the retina. Answer: the retina

Our Senses in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 2 of 6 in 6th grade Science, after Body Systems and before Cells: Life's Building Blocks.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which two senses work together when you catch a ball?

    • smell and hearing
    • sight and touch
    • hearing and taste
    • taste and smell

  2. Question 2

    Which sound level can damage hearing over time?

    • quiet music
    • loud noise for a long time
    • birds singing quietly
    • whispering

  3. Question 3

    Where are the cells that detect smell found?

    • in the ears
    • on the skin
    • on the tongue
    • high inside the nose

  4. Question 4

    Which part of the eye lets in light?

    • the pupil
    • the eyelid
    • the iris
    • the retina

  5. Question 5

    Why is pain helpful?

    • it helps you hear
    • it makes you hungry
    • it warns you about danger
    • it slows you down for fun

  6. Question 6

    Which animal has a sense of hearing that uses echoes to find food?

    • a bat
    • a trout
    • a snail
    • a robin

More 6th grade