Mississippi Science HAP.6.7
The Standard
- HAP.6
- Students will investigate the structures and functions of the nervous system, including the cause and effect of diseases and disorders.
Describe the structure and function of the special senses (i.e., vision, hearing, taste, and olfaction).
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Nervous System
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the main parts involved in seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling. They trace how light, sound vibrations, and chemicals become nerve signals sent to the brain.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can trace light through the lens to receptors in the retina, and sound vibrations through the middle ear to hair cells in the cochlea. They can explain how taste cells and smell receptors detect chemicals.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think the lens detects light or the eardrum sends hearing signals to the brain. They may think each taste has its own tongue zone, or that smell has no effect on flavor.
How to Assess It
- Ask students to make a four-row chart for sight, hearing, taste, and smell. For each sense, have them name the stimulus, the receptor that detects it, and one structure the stimulus passes through first.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Shine a flashlight through a magnifying glass onto paper, then label the lens and retina on an eye diagram.
Ask: If the eardrum vibrates, why do we still need hair cells in the cochlea?
Give pairs cards for stimuli, structures, receptors, and nerves; have them build four sensory pathways and check their order against a diagram.
Use a school lunch menu to ask why a stuffy nose makes pizza seem bland even when taste buds still work.
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Printable HAP.6.7 Worksheet
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