Assignment - Infographics - 154
A Note on What Makes This an Infographic
An illustration of five organs with their names is a diagram. An infographic about sense organs tells the story of how the body receives information about the world: every sense works by converting a physical stimulus into an electrical signal that the brain can read. Your infographic should show not just which organ detects what, but how the signal moves from the world to the brain, and what life would be like without each sense.
Objective
Create a summary infographic in Canva covering all five sense organs - eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin - showing the stimulus each detects, the receptor involved, the nerve pathway to the brain, and one consequence of losing that sense.
Content to Cover
Opening Anchor
The body gathers information about the world through five sense organs. Each organ contains specialized receptor cells that detect a specific type of stimulus - light, sound, chemicals, or pressure - and convert it into an electrical nerve signal. The brain then interprets these signals to produce the experience of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.
The Five Senses
Design one panel per sense:
Sight - The Eye
- Stimulus: light (electromagnetic radiation)
- Receptor cells: rods (detect light/dark) and cones (detect color) in the retina
- Nerve pathway: optic nerve → visual cortex (occipital lobe of the brain)
- Note: Assignments 128 (defects of vision) and 132 (journey of light through the eye) cover this in detail.
Hearing - The Ear
- Stimulus: sound waves (pressure vibrations in air)
- Receptor cells: hair cells in the cochlea
- Nerve pathway: auditory nerve → auditory cortex (temporal lobe)
- Note: Assignment 131 covers the journey of sound through the ear in detail.
Smell - The Nose
- Stimulus: airborne chemical molecules (odorants)
- Receptor cells: olfactory receptor neurons in the olfactory epithelium
- Nerve pathway: olfactory nerve → olfactory bulb → olfactory cortex
- Note: Assignment 155 covers this in detail.
Taste - The Tongue
- Stimulus: dissolved chemical molecules in food and drink
- Receptor cells: taste receptor cells in taste buds (found mainly on the tongue)
- Five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami (savory)
- Nerve pathway: facial and glossopharyngeal nerves → gustatory cortex
- Note: Assignment 156 covers this in detail.
Touch - The Skin
- Stimulus: pressure, temperature, pain, vibration
- Receptor cells: various mechanoreceptors and thermoreceptors distributed across the skin
- Nerve pathway: sensory nerves → spinal cord → somatosensory cortex (parietal lobe)
- Most sensitive areas: fingertips, lips, tongue (highest density of receptors)
- Least sensitive: back, upper arms
The Common Principle
Add a summary box: All five senses follow the same basic process - stimulus → receptor cells convert it to electrical signal → nerve carries signal to brain → brain interprets it as a sensation.
What Happens When a Sense is Impaired
Add brief notes:
- Loss of sight: blindness; the brain compensates by sharpening hearing and touch.
- Loss of hearing: deafness; sign language and lip reading become primary communication.
- Loss of smell: anosmia; significantly affects taste (80% of flavor comes from smell, not the tongue).
- Loss of taste: ageusia; rarely complete; usually linked to loss of smell.
- Loss of touch: serious danger; the person cannot detect injury, heat, or pain.
Design in Canva
- Five panels arranged around a central “Five Senses” heading.
- Each panel: organ illustration, stimulus, receptor, nerve pathway, and one impairment note.
- The common principle as a unifying banner across the bottom.
- Color-code by sense: a different color for each.
Required Elements
- All five senses with stimulus, receptor, and nerve pathway.
- The common principle panel.
- One impairment consequence per sense.
- Cross-references to the detailed assignments (131, 132, 155, 156) noted where relevant.
- Title: “The Five Sense Organs.”