Product: NOVA: Mystery of the Senses (2007)
Rating: 5.0
Great for Middle School Science
I couldn't agree more with the other reviewers that a lot of time is wasted by the narrator on fluff (who wants to see her dancing or buying candy for 5 minutes). But...I can't find a better dvd/film that covers the senses. I use only the parts of each dvd that are pertinent.The series brings home the point that most of what we sense is in our brains, and when the brain (spinal/nervous system) is injured you can lose the function, even though everything else is working. Liked the first person stories and graphics that clarified functions. Simply put, the students would much rather watch a film than read their book or listen to the teacher. I did little experiments in class to follow up.For the taste and smell senses I gave each student a few Hershey's chocolate and butterscotch drops (the little ones you buy in a bag to make cookies). They couldn't tell the difference when they held their nose while eating them and loved eating candy as an experiment (be sure to check for allergies, like peanut, among your students first). For the vision we looked through prisms and concave and convex lenses that I purchased at our local Lakeshore store, a teacher supply store. Also turned the lights in the room on and off to watch our pupil size change and looked through magnifying glasses to make things larger then turn everything upside down. Simple experiments, yes, but effective when they followed the dvd explaining what happens and why, and we later reviewed the concepts in writing and drawing.PS - Save yourself some money and buy the dvd that has all 5 senses on it.