How to make a Neuron Model

Neuron Model

Hi friends it's been a long time since I posted any  of my daughter's school projects .Of late most of the time they are made in such a  hurry that I either forget to take pictures or they are made at night so I end up with grainy blurry pictures not worth sharing!
But this one was made completely by my kiddo with no help at all from me and I do have some decent pictures to share with all of you!

Neuron Model

Can you believe some  of the  popular posts on my blog include  "How to make a Tooth Model" and "How to make a Respiratory System Model"!
So in case  you landed on this page by googling " how to make a neuron model" let me run you through the creative process so that you can make a neuron of your own!!

Draw/Pint/Trace a Neuron
My daughter is 12 yrs and is quite good at drawing so she looked at the picture of the neuron in her Biology text book and drew a large neuron freehand. If you find free hand drawing challenging ...lightly trace or print the picture of a neuron

Neuron Model

Make it dimensional using lightweight media

To make a dimensional model on paper use thick paper as your base and avoid very heavy materials on top. If you have light weight clay such as Amos clay or Sakura clay you can make your structure using clay like in this Tooth Model we made long back.

For this model my daughter used different colors of hot glue! The cellbody and the dendrites were made using white hot glue. It is tricky to get the hot glue drawn into the thin dendrites so if you are not confident with hot glue do practise getting thin lines first and avoid hot glue altogether with young children!

The nucleus in the cell body was created by sticking on a red spiny pompom!

Neuron Model

The central part of the axon[axoplasm] was made using a plastic tube filled with beads and sealed at both ends. A word of advice here...avoid seed beads as they are too tiny and don't move around well. The beads my daughter used here are inexpensive but medium weight beads which roll within the axoplasm and are wonderful to give the illusion of a nerve impulse travelling down the axon!

Neuron Model

The yellow myelin sheath of the axon was again created using hot glue. The end of the  plastic tubing was split using scissors into multiple filaments to make the axon terminals and the synaptic bulbs was created using pink pom poms!

This project was a big hit in class and not only did kiddo score full marks but it was displayed on the board in her class [ which is a big deal according to her!]