Three Mothers
by Greg Crowther
This is a short rap about the meninges that protect the brain and spinal cord.
CHORUS:
My brain, my brain, my brain's covered --
Covered and protected by three mothers!
My brain, my brain, my brain's covered --
Covered and protected by three mothers!
One tough mother on the outside;
Spidery mother beneath;
Tender mother on the inside,
Holding CSF in a sheath!
CHORUS
• sheet music
Songs like this one can be used during class meetings and/or in homework assignments. Either way, the song will be most impactful if students DO something with it, as opposed to just listening.
An initial, simple follow-up activity could be to answer the study questions below. A more extensive interaction with the song might entail (A) learning to sing it, using an audio file and/or sheet music as a guide, and/or (B) illustrating it with pictures, bodily poses, and/or bodily movements. The latter activity could begin with students identifying the most important or most challenging content of the song, and deciding how to illustrate that particular content.
(1) What are the names of the meninges, in order from outermost to innermost?
(2) How do the words of the verse relate to the names of the meninges?
(3) What is CSF?
(4) The song talks about the tender mother "holding CSF in a sheath." In what sense is this incomplete or misleading?
(Answers may be found on the answers page.)
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