The nervous systemIB MYP Biology: Mind map

Exam questions on The nervous system

1. A chef accidentally touches a hot pan with her hand. She pulls her hand away before she feels any pain, and only a moment later does she notice the burn.
   Explain why the reflex pulls the chef's hand away faster than a decision made by her brain.2 marks
2. At a food festival in Mumbai, judges assess a new snack. They look at its colour, smell it, taste it, feel its texture in the mouth and listen to how loudly it crunches.
   Suggest why food seems to have less flavour when you have a blocked nose.2 marks
3. A class investigates whether reaction time is different for the dominant hand and the non-dominant hand, using the ruler-drop test. One student holds a 30 cm ruler vertically above the open fingers of a partner and drops it without warning. The partner closes the fingers as fast as possible, and the distance the ruler fell is read from the top of the thumb. Each student does five drops with each hand. One student's distances for the dominant hand were 14, 12, 13, 25 and 13 cm. For the non-dominant hand they were 18, 20, 19, 17 and 21 cm.
   Identify the independent variable, the dependent variable and one control variable in this investigation.3 marks