The human brain is made up of a complex network of nerve cells or neurons. Neurons control everything that our body does from the heartbeat to the emotions. In this activity we will start with learning of an anatomy or structure of the neuron. Then, we will continue a study of how do neurons carry a message. A leech will help us to understand it since it has a simple structure of the nervous system that works the same way as that of human. We will perform the virtual experiment “Probe and Identify Sensory Neurons” that simulates a real neurophysiological experiment that explores the leech's nervous system.

Learning objectives:

• Understand a structure of neuron
• Explore and observe the work of a nerve cell
• Learn the resting and action potentials terminology
• Conduct the “Probe and Identify Sensory Neurons” experiment
• Create a lab report of the experiment

The activity was developed in the framework of the Digi-Science project (Grant Agreement N. 2020-1-EE01-KA226-SCH-093387).