Chapter 1 : The World Through

Our Senses

Sensory organs and their functions

• 5 main sensory organs of human beings.

Skin Nose Tongue Ear Eye

Important to 1) Body Coordination
control :
2) Control the internal organs function eg : Lung

3) Balanced the internal environment

Functions of the Human Nervous System

• controls and coordinates organs and parts of the body

• detects stimuli

• sends information in the form of impulses

• interprets impulses

• produces appropriate responses

The responses of human body to stimuli can be
divided into two :

1 )Voluntary actions 2 )Involuntary

actions
 • 5 main senses that can be detect by sensory organs

Sense of touch
Sense of smell
(SKIN)
(NOSE)

5 Senses

Sense of hearing Sense of taste

(EAR) (TONGUE)

Sense of sight
(EYES)
Sensory organs  allow organism to aware changes
in their surroundings.

 this will allow organism to react to the

stimulus

• Changes that occur = STIMULI

• Organ detect stimuli = SENSORY ORGAN

Example :

Stimulus Sensory organ

(hot pan) Skin, detect the heat
as the stimulus
The relation between sensory organs, stimuli and senses

Sensory
Stimuli Sense
Organs
Eyes Light Sense of sight

Ears Sound Sense of hearing

Nose Smell (chemical in food) Sense of smell

Skin Touch, pressure, pain, heat and Sense of touch

cold
Tongue Taste (chemical in food) Sense of taste
Response to stimuli
• Reaction of organism to stimulus = Response
The Pathway from Stimulus to response

Sensory
Organ
Stimulus (detect by ear)
(phone rings)

Nerves
sent message
to brain

Brain
Nerves
Respond Interpret message
sent message
After receive the message, and decide what
body responds to body parts
should be done.
(hand pick up the phone)
The Pathway from Stimulus to response
• The pathway can be simplified as followed
Stimulus

Sensory Organs

Nerves

Brain

Nerves

Response
 1.1 The Sense Of Touch

• Human skin consist of two 2 main layers.

i) epidermis ii) dermis
- outer layer of skin - inner layer of skin
• There are 5 main receptors in skin

1) Pain receptor 2) Touch receptor epidermis

3) Heat receptor
4) Cold receptor dermis

Fat Layer
5) Pressure receptor
Type Of Function
Receptor
• Detect extreme cold, hot and pressure.
Pain
receptor

• Detect touch on skin. (light touch)

Touch
receptor

• Detect temperature that is hotter than

Heat
normal at the surrounding of the skin.
receptor

• Detect temperature that is colder than

Cold normal at the surrounding the skin.
receptor

• Detect heavy touch or pressure on the

Pressure skin.
receptor
• Skin at different body part is not equally sensitive

• The difference is because :

1. Different thickness of epidermis

2. Different number of receptor in the skin

Example:
• Feet less sensitive than finger.
- This is because feet contain thicker epidermis other
than finger.

- Finger is also use for most of the daily activity (eg: touch, carry
thing) so it contain more receptors than many other body parts.
Activity 1.3 (text book, page 8)

Put √ for correct response and X for wrong response

Skin Touched with 1 Touched with

toothpick 2 toothpick
Back of the hand

Fingertip

Palm of the hand

Elbow

Wrist
 Discussion

1. Which parts of the body tested is the :

a) most sensitive to touch ?
b) least sensitive to touch ?

a) fingertip

b) elbow

2. Why is the subject blindfolded in this activity ?

- To get the accurate result by covering the sense of sight.

3. Are the receptors evenly distributed in the skin at different parts of our
body ?
- No

3. Make an inference about the distribution of touch receptors in the skin at

various parts of the body ?
- The number of touch receptors in fingertip is higher than other body parts.
1.3 The Sense Of Smell

Sensory cells

Nostril

Air
 Sensory cells

Nasal Cavity
- Hollow internal part
of the nose

• Nose is the passageway of air to travel to lung.

• Sensory cells (receptor) located in the roof of nasal cavity.

•Sensory cells covered with layer of moisture called mucus.

Chemical in air Smell receptor Message Brain

(smell) (sensory cells) (impulse) Interpreting data
 1.4 The Sense Of Taste

• The tongue is the sensory organ that can give sense of taste.

• Sensory cells that detect sense of taste called taste receptors

• Taste receptors can detect 4 type of tastes :

- sweet , sour , salty and bitter
Different areas of tongue that respond to different tastes.

Bitter

Sour Sour

Salty Salty

Sweet
Activity 1.4 (text book, page 11) D

C C

B B

A
Taste
Region of the
tongue Sweet Sour Salty Bitter

D
Put √ to show the taste can be detected
Put X to show the taste can be detected
 Discussion
1. What is the taste of the following :
a) sugar solution c) salt solution
b) vinegar d) coffee without sugar
a) sweet c) salty
b) sour d) bitter

3. Why is it necessary to rinse the mouth between tests?

- To clean the residual solution in the mouth

1.5 The Sense Of Hearing And Sound

• The ear is sensory organ that give the sense of hearing.

• Ear can be divided into 3 parts :

i) Outer ear
ii) Middle ear

iii) Inner ear

 Ear Ossicles Oval
Canal window
Eardrum
Cochlea Auditory
nerves

Pinna

Outer Middle Inner

Ear Ear Ear
 Functions Of Different Parts Of Ear

Pinna Collect sound waves and directing sound waves

Outer through ear canal.
ear Ear Canal Directs the sound waves to eardrum

Eardrum Vibrates when strike by sound waves from ear canal

Ossicles Vibrating eardrum cause the Ossicles to vibrate.

Middle The vibrating Ossicles then vibrate against
ear oval window.
Oval
window Vibration of oval window cause the fluid in cochlea
Vibrate.

Detect vibration from oval window and convert to

Cochlea Impulse.
Inner
ear
Auditory Send impulse to brain.
nerves
 -Three canals contain fluid which swirls when head is move.
- Help the body to maintain balance.
Semicircular
Canal

Eustachian
tube
- Air tube from middle ear to throat.
- Equalise air pressure on each side of eardrum
1.6 The Sense Of Sight
• The pair of eyes are the sensory organs that enable human to see the
thing in surrounding Ciliary muscle
Suspensory
Vitreous ligaments
Humour Lens
Iris
Sclera
Cornea

Retina Conjunctiva

Pupil
Yellow
spot

Optic Aqueous
Nerve Humour
Blind
spot Choroid
• Function of each part of eyes.

Cornea Help to focus light rays onto retina

Pupil Allow the light rays to enter the eye

Iris Controls amount of light entering the eye

Aqueous
Maintains shape of eye and help to refract light rays
Humour

Lens Bend and focuses light rays onto retina

Cilliary
Change the thickness of the lens
Muscles

Vitreous
Maintain shape of eye and help to retract light rays
Humour

Sclera Protects and maintains the shape of the eye

Choroid Black pigments absorb light and prevent reflection of light in eye

Retina Respond to light rays and form the image. Produce the impulse.

Optic
Send impulse from retina to the brain.
nerve

Blind
The part of the retina that is not sensitive to light.
Spot

Yellow
The part of the retina that is most sensitive to the light.
Spot
 How we see ?
3) Light passes through Lens and bent to
form upside down image on retina.
1) Light from objects enters eye
and bent when passes
through Cornea.

4
2 3

2) Light passes through aqueous humour 4) Light receptors on retina detect image.
and reach pupil. The message produced.

5) The message sent to brain through

optical nerve for interpretation.
Properties of Light
Light and Sight
Example of light properties

• Type of energy and can travel through vacuum.

• Sun is the largest source of light

• Light travel in straight line.

• Travel faster than sound.

• This explain why on rainy day,

we can see the flash of lightning before
hearing the sound of thunder.
 • Experiment to show that Light travel in straight line.

• If the middle cardboard (B) is push a little out of its position, the candle flame
cannot be seen.
A) Reflection of light
When light falls on surface of an object and bounce off  reflection

• The formation of mirror image is the everyday example of phenomenon.

Example phenomenon Reflection of light.

• The moon does not produced light but it

reflects the light from the sun

• The dentist use dental mirrors to check

patient’s teeth.

• A rear-view mirror helps driver to see what is behind

Activity 1.9 (text book, page 24)
To investigate the reflection of light.

MIRROR

Beam of light a Reflected beam of light

b

angle a = angle b

Light ray box

B) Refraction of light
Process when speed of light change when passes from
Refraction
one medium into another with different density

• Example : light travel from air into water ( density of water higher than air )

Therefore, light changes direction as it passes into water.

Beam of light in air

Beam of light bent in water.

Beaker contain water
Example phenomenon Refraction of light.

1) The position of a fish in water appears to be as a shallower level

than it actually is.
 2) The drinking straw in a glass of water appears bent.

3) The swimming pool appears to be

shallower
Activity 1.10 (text book, page 25)
To investigate the refraction of light.
Various Defects Of Vision
• Occurs when eye lens cannot form sharp image on the retina

• Types of vision defects :

1. Short-sightedness
2. Long-sightedness

3. Astigmatism
1. Short-sightedness

OBJECT

• The eyeball may be too long or the lens too thick.

• The light rays from far objects are formed in front of the retina.

• No image form on retina and as the results, no signal send to brain through
optical nerve.
Correction for Short-sightedness

Concave
Len

OBJECT

• Concave lenses are required to diverge the light before it enters the eye.

• Image formed on retina.

 2. Long-Sightedness

OBJECT

• The eyeball may be too short or the lens too thin

• The light rays from nearby objects are formed behind of the retina.

• No image form on retina and as the results, no signal send to brain through
optical nerve.
 Correction for Long-sightedness

Convex
Len

OBJECT

• Convex lenses are required to converge the light before it enters the eye.

• Image formed on retina.

 3. Astigmatism
• Unequal curvatures in different part of lens or cornea and this will
cause the light rays fail to focus onto one point.

• This will cause a blurred vision

Unequal surface curvature

Of cornea

OBJECT
Correction for Astigmatism

Asymmetrical
lens
Limitations Of Sight
• Sense of sight has its limitation

• Example of the limitations :

1 . Looking at the objects that are very far away

2 . Looking at the objects that are too small

3 . Optical Illusion
3 . Optical Illusion

• Occurs when brain cannot correctly interpret the image that we see.

• Example of optical illusion :

Line A

Line B

Which of the horizontal line between A and B are longer?

Which of the circles in the centre is bigger?
Are the horizontal lines parallel?
Blind Spot
• The part on retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye.

• Does not have any light sensitive cell (light receptor)

• Image formed on blind spot cannot be detected.

OBJECT Blind
Spot
Stereoscopic & Monocular Vision
Stereoscopic Vision
• Ability to use both eyes to see an object. (Also known as binocular vision)

• Humans and predators animal have stereoscopic vision.

• Advantages of Stereoscopic vision :

- See the objects in three dimension

- Sense the depth and estimate distance accurately.

Stereoscopic
vision field
Monocular Vision
• Ability to use only one eye to see an object.

• Example of animals that use monocular vision

chickens, horses, rabbits, goats and mice
• Monocular vision enables an animal to look at its surroundings in every
direction without turning its head.

• This will allow the animals to detect the presence of predator quickly.
Devices to overcome Limitation of sight
• Optical instruments to overcome the limitation of sight.

Example :

1) BINOCULAR
- use to magnify object in a far distance

2) MAGNIFYING GLASS
- enables to see small objects clearly
 3) MICROSCOPE
- use to magnify tiny objects that
cannot be seen by the naked eye
such as human body cell

4) TELESCOPE
- helps to see very far objects such
as Moon
5) PERISCOPE
- helps us to see over the top of something,
for example the wall.

- use in submarine to see above the

surface of the sea

6) X- RAY
- type of radiation that can pass through object
that are not transparent to see inside them.
7) ULTRASOUND Scanning Device
- use in medical diagnose to see inside
the human body.
- example : to monitor the growth of unborn
baby

8) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

- use in medical diagnose to see inside
the human body.
- to monitor the condition of the organs
inside body.
Sounds And Hearing

A. Production of sound
• sound is produced by vibrations. Kinetic energy  sound energy

B. Transmission of Sound
• sound travel from its source through medium in form of sound wave.
• The three medium which sound can travel through are :

a) Solid b) liquid c) gas

• sound cannot travel through a vacuum.

Example:
Astronauts in outer space cannot speak to
each other directly because there is no
medium to transmit the sound.
C. Reflection and Absorption of sound

• Reflection of sound
• Sound can be reflected by a surface
• Hard surface reflects sound better than a soft surface.

• Simple experiment to show reflection of sound.

Plastic pipe 50 cm long

Ear of observer
Clock

i) The observer can hear the ticking of the clock through the second pipe

ii) This is because the ticking sound of the clock is reflected by the hard
wooden plate to the ear of the observer.
• Simple experiment to show absorption of sound.
Soft cloth

i) The observer cannot hear the ticking of the clock through the second
pipe (or the sound may be heard softly)

ii) This is because the ticking sound of the clock is absorbed by the soft
cloth.
 Echo
• Caused by sound waves bouncing off a surfaces such as a hard wall.

• Example, when the man clapped the hand, sound wave produced will be
bounce back by the wall and known as echoes.

• Echoes may cause disturbance for example in theatre.

• Soft surface usually used as wall in enclosed area such as theatre to absorb
sound and reduce the echoes.
Application of sound reflection

• use in ship to estimate depth of

sea, submarine and fish.

Defects Of Hearing
• Can occur due to :

1) old age
• As we get older, the eardrum becomes
stiffer and cannot vibrate easily.

2) Prolonged exposure to loud sound

• Can damage the eardrum if

the ear is exposed to loud
sound for a long time.
Limitation Of Hearing
• Human ear have limitation as it can detect sound in frequency
range 16 Hz to 20 000 Hz

• Human ear is most sensitive to frequencies at 1500 to 4000 Hz.

• Many animals can hear sounds in a frequency range which our ears
cannot detect.
Example : Dog

Cat

45 Hz to 64 000 Hz 40 Hz to 60 000 Hz
Devices To Overcome Limitation Of Hearing

1) Stethoscope
- use to hear weak sound

2) Microphone & Loudspeaker

- use to hear weak sound
1.7 STIMULI & RESPONSES IN PLANTS
The respond of plants towards or away the stimulus  TROPISM

• Positive Tropism = response towards the stimulus

• Negative Tropism = response away from the stimulus

• There are 5 different types of responses such as

1) Phototropism

2) Geotropism

3) Hydrotropism

4) Thigmotropism

5) Nastic movement
1) Phototropism
• response of plants to light.

• Plants will grow their stems and leaves towards light.

• This enables plants to absorb maximum light for photosynthesis

 HOLE

BOX

PLANT

• In the end of experiment, it can be observed that the shoots of

the plant grow towards the hole (light source).
2) Geotropism • response of plants to gravity
• Roots of plant will show positive geotropism
(growing towards direction of gravity)
• This enables roots grow into soil to hold the plant for stability.
• The roots also able to obtain water and mineral in soil.
• Plants part respond differently to gravity.
• Root show • Shoot show
POSITIVE POSITIVE
Geotropism Phototropism
• Sunflower is example of plant that show positive Phototropism.
• It follow the direction of sun all day.
3) Hydrotropism • response of plants to water
• This enables plant to obtain water.

• Root show POSITIVE

Hydrotropism WATER
Experiment to show Hydrotropism
• After a few days, the roots of the seedling grow towards the water.

• This response is called positive hydrotropism.

4) Thigmotropism
• response of plant to touch.
• Example : Help plant to climb

OBJECT

PLANT
•Climbing plants have special part called tendrils.
• Tendril twine around the object as support for their climbing
5) Nastic Movement
• Responses to stimuli that come from all directions, such as
temperature and touch.
• The response is not influenced with the direction of stimulus.
• Example : Mimosa pudica plant will close its leaves immediately
when touched
• Example : Venus flytrap plant will close its leaves immediately
when touched

• grow in conditions that are short of nitrogen so they have evolved a

way of getting their nitrogen by capturing and digesting insects.