Subscribe

6th grade · Science · Unit 3 of 10

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.

New York State Learning 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 3 of 10 in 6th grade Science, after Mixtures & Solutions 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    What vibrates when sound hits it in the ear?

    • the lens
    • the eardrum
    • the nostril
    • the tongue

  2. Question 2

    Which sound level can damage hearing over time?

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

  3. Question 3

    Why does food taste bland when you have a stuffy nose?

    • your ears block
    • smell helps us taste
    • your eyes close
    • your tongue falls asleep

  4. Question 4

    Which nerve carries messages from the eye to the brain?

    • the olfactory nerve
    • the optic nerve
    • the spinal nerve
    • the auditory nerve

  5. Question 5

    Which organ is the largest sense organ?

    • the ear
    • the skin
    • the nose
    • the eye

  6. Question 6

    An optical illusion shows that…

    • light doesn’t exist
    • your brain can be fooled when it interprets what you see
    • your eyes are broken
    • colors are not real

More 6th grade