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Synapse Construction Kit©
Synapse Construction Kit©

Synapse Construction Kit©

Product Code: SCK-01
$142.00
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Your students will uncover how electrical and chemical signals allow us to move, breathe, and think, then predict what happens when things go wrong.

Where one neuron ends and another starts, things can get pretty interesting. Your students can investigate the action potential of a neuron plus the interaction of neurotransmitters, membrane receptors, and transport proteins. Students work collaboratively to:

  • Discover how the resting potential of a neuron is established and travels down an axon
  • Simulate the action of the sodium-potassium pump in resetting the resting potential
  • Explore the effects of neurotransmitters acetylcholine, dopamine, and GABA on a post-synaptic neuron
  • Model cholinergic, dopaminergic, and GABAergic synapses
  • Compare metabotropic and ionotropic receptors
Once students create their model to show the typical process for the neuron function, they can analyze where the process can break down. They then revise their model using representations of nicotine, cocaine, sarin gas, and propofol on neuronal signaling to predict the molecular and organismal response.