Week 15 — Readings & Resources

Human Anatomy and Physiology I Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 15 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 51–59 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–20 min total)

① Following light through the eye

Chapter 15, Section “Follow the light: cornea, pupil, lens, retina” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The light path” · Remember: light passes the cornea, the pupil, the lens, and the retina in that order, and only the retina turns it into a nerve signal.

Vision: It All Starts with Light — BrainFacts.org, Society for Neuroscience — a short feature from a neuroscience society that follows light through the cornea, pupil, and lens to the rods and cones of the retina; notice how it shares the focusing between the cornea and the lens, and stop once the signal leaves the eye on the optic nerve, since the brain's visual pathway goes beyond this course. Use it while completing the Week-15 module overview. (reading, 5–7 min)
Vision: Anatomy and Physiology, Animation — Alila Medical Media — an animated tour of the eye's focusing parts and the retina, with the fovea, the blind spot, and the rods and cones; skip the light-sensing chemistry near the end, which goes beyond this course. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

② Sound and balance in the inner ear

Chapter 15, Section “Follow the sound: from the pinna to the oval window” · Session 2, Segment 6, “The sound path” · Remember: the eardrum passes vibration to the malleus, incus, and stapes, and hair cells in the cochlea turn it into a nerve signal.

How Do We Hear? — National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders — a plain-language government page that follows sound from the ear canal to the eardrum, across the three tiny bones of the middle ear, and into the fluid of the cochlea, where hair cells make the signal; read the whole short page and write the bones in order as you go. (reading, 3–5 min)
Hearing & Balance: Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology #17 — CrashCourse — a fast, friendly episode on both jobs of the inner ear, hearing and balance; as you watch, sort each structure it names into the hearing side or the balance side. This builds on Week 14's work with the cranial nerves, since both jobs ride one of them. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
2-Minute Neuroscience: The Cochlea — Neuroscientifically Challenged — a two-minute animation of sound moving from the oval window into the fluid of the cochlea and bending the hair cells; listen for the step where movement becomes a nerve signal. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
2-Minute Neuroscience: Vestibular System — Neuroscientifically Challenged — a two-minute animation of the balance side of the inner ear, the semicircular canals and the vestibule; use it to explain why a room keeps spinning after a spinning chair stops. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

③ Taste, smell, and flavor

Chapter 15, Section “Answer the hook: flavor is mostly smell” · Session 2, Segment 11, “Flavor is mostly smell” · Remember: the five basic tastes and a food's aroma combine into flavor, and without smell, food tastes bland.

Explainer: Taste and Flavor Are Not the Same — Science News Explores — a short explainer from a science news site for young readers on how the tongue's taste cells and the nose's smell work together to build flavor; read it with the nose-pinched test from the lab in mind. (reading, 3–5 min)
Taste & Smell: Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology #16 — CrashCourse — an episode on the two chemical senses, from taste buds to the smell receptors high in the nose; check the list of basic tastes it gives against the chapter's five. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Taste: Anatomy and Physiology, Animation — Alila Medical Media — a short animation of the papillae and the taste buds inside them; keep to the buds and the basic tastes, and skip the nerve pathways into the brain, which go beyond this course. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Peripheral Nervous System — SEER Training Modules, National Cancer Institute — the course's free online anatomy reference, open at its page on the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord; read the section on the cranial nerves, which notes the purely sensory nerves for smell, vision, hearing, and equilibrium, and skip the rest of the page. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com