The Body-Mind Connection of Stress (45 minutes)

Section

Your Life

Investigative Questions

How does the body react physically to stress? What is the "fight or flight" response? What body mechanisms cause physical stress symptoms like a racing heartbeat or a dry mouth?

Description of Content

In this activity, students will complete their own "physical reactions to stress" checklist and graph the results as a class. Then they will work in pairs to learn more about the body mechanisms behind physical stress symptoms—things like a fast heartbeat, cold hands, and dry mouth, as well as longer-lasting symptoms such as headaches and trouble sleeping. Finally, students will discuss their own reactions to stress and come to understand that many of these physical responses are simply part of the body's normal functioning. Students will also explore healthy ways of coping with stress.

Relevant Standards

This activity meets science and health education standards.

Ideas and Behaviors Common Among Students

This activity draws on research about how students may already understand and respond to stress in their lives.

Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze their own physical responses to stress
• Describe the "fight or flight" response to stress
• Explore how the human body reacts physically to stress, including the role of hormones
• Draw conclusions about what happens in their own bodies under stress
• Describe the wide range of normal stress responses
• Construct a bar graph

Teacher Background

The human body instinctively reacts to stress by releasing hormones—chemical messengers made by glands and carried through the bloodstream—that control heart rate and breathing. This is the body's way of supplying extra energy to either fight a threat or flee from it, an ancient survival response often called "fight or flight." This same response appears in animals, too. (In this activity, we use a cat as an example to help students see that physical stress responses are part of both animal and human behavior.)

According to the National Institutes of Health and other sources, the stress response is driven by hormones. Two glands in the brain—the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland—along with the adrenal glands, located on top of the kidneys, control the hormones that help the body handle change or stressful situations. The hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, which in turn signals the adrenal glands to release three stress hormones: epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. These chemicals speed up heart rate and breathing, giving the body a burst of energy to fight or flee, while also affecting other bodily functions. Releasing these hormones can cause a wide range of physical reactions, including headaches, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, a racing heartbeat, nausea, cold hands, trouble concentrating, difficulty sleeping, cravings for certain foods, and sudden angry outbursts.

Research conducted to build the BAM! Body and Mind™ website found that kids and teens are genuinely concerned about stress in their lives and want to learn how to manage it. Parents share this interest in helping their children cope with stress.

This lesson suggests using two features from the BAM! website: the "Got Butterflies" game and the "Feelin' Frazzled?" list of 10 tips for relieving stress. You may want to preview both before class. If your students don't have easy internet access, the lesson still works without them.

Materials

• Student Reproducible 1: Taking Stock: My Body's Reaction to Stress
• Student Reproducible 2: Cold Hands, Fast Heart: The Body's Physiological Reaction to Stress

Safety

Follow normal classroom safety procedures.

Procedure

Engagement (10 minutes)

1. Before learning about the body's chemical reactions to stress, students will complete a self-assessment of their own physical stress responses. Distribute Student Reproducible 1: Taking Stock: My Body's Reaction to Stress.
2. Discuss the drawing of the cat and the information at the top of the reproducible. Ask students whether they've seen a cat respond to a stressful situation—a dog running by, another cat wandering into its territory, a trip to the vet. What do cats do? Let students discuss briefly.
3. Point out that cats don't have to think about how to respond—the "fight or flight" response just happens automatically. Ask students to name specific adaptations other animals have that help them respond to threats or stressors. (For example, porcupines release their quills; dogs growl.) Encourage students to share other animal reactions they've observed.
4. Explain that humans have this same response. The survival instinct known as "fight or flight" is built into our bodies.

Exploration (15 minutes)

1. Have students complete the self-assessment, identifying how their bodies physically react to stress.
2. Once finished, compile the class's responses into a bar graph. You can do this together in class, or collect the data during class and assign the graph as homework. (One helpful online tool for creating graphs is the National Center for Education Statistics' Create a Graph website: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx)

Here is an example of what a bar graph might look like:

Explanation (20 minutes)

1. Distribute Student Reproducible 2: Cold Hands, Fast Heart: The Body's Physiological Reaction to Stress. Explain that students will now learn why their bodies react this way.
2. Explain that hormones—chemicals made by glands and carried through the bloodstream that affect how organs function—are responsible for producing "fight or flight" responses in both animals and people.
3. Have students read Student Reproducible 2 and study the anatomical drawing. Then review with the class which glands and hormones control the body's stress responses. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland, located in the brain, along with the adrenal glands, located on top of the kidneys (shown in the drawing), control the hormones that help the body cope with change or stress. The hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, which signals the adrenal glands to release the stress hormones epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. These chemicals speed up heart rate and breathing, giving the body a burst of energy to fight or flee, and also affect other bodily functions. (Note: One more hormone comes up in the explanation below—serotonin, which boosts good feelings and helps regulate sleep.)
4. As you go over how stress affects the body, ask students to explain the physical cause behind each symptom of stress, then correct any misunderstandings. The first six items below are typical responses to short-term stress. The rest—headaches, sleeplessness, appetite changes, and sudden anger—are usually responses to longer-term stress.

Guide for Discussing Student Reproducible 2

• Cold hands happen because stress hormones surging through the bloodstream pull blood away from the skin. This gives the heart and muscles extra strength but can leave your hands and feet feeling cold.
• Stress hormones redirect blood toward vital organs like the heart, lungs, and liver, leaving less for the muscles. Since the throat is a muscle, it can tighten up, making swallowing difficult.
• Cortisol, one of the stress hormones, temporarily shuts down digestion in the stomach while speeding up activity in the digestive tract—this combination can cause nausea.
• Once the stress response kicks into full gear, the body sends blood only to the parts it considers essential for survival. With much of your body's fluid diverted to your organs, your mouth can become very dry.
• Stress hormones increase blood flow by 300–400 percent. The heart pumps faster to move all that extra blood to the muscles and organs, which is why you feel your heart pounding.
• Stress hormones affect short-term memory so you can focus entirely on the "danger" in front of you. At the same time, they signal the brain to store the stressful event in long-term memory, so you'll know how to react if something similar happens again. One side effect of this process is difficulty concentrating.
• Headaches are a common symptom of long-term stress. Experts aren't entirely sure why, but tight muscles in the head and neck are usually blamed. Additionally, chemical messengers in the brain cause blood vessels to constrict (narrow), reducing blood flow to the head—which can trigger a headache.
• On a normal, stress-free day, the hormones that give you energy (epinephrine and norepinephrine) stay at a steady level, then naturally decrease later in the day as the sleep hormone serotonin takes over. But under prolonged stress, the body keeps producing epinephrine and norepinephrine, which block serotonin and lead to sleeplessness.
• Appetite changes are a common stress response—some people crave food, others lose their appetite entirely. Certain foods raise serotonin levels (the same "feel-good" hormone), which can improve mood. Many people crave items like candy, soda, or ice cream under stress, though cravings vary from person to person. (Remind students that eating healthy foods helps maintain energy and protects against stress.)
• Stress can leave people feeling helpless and overwhelmed, which can trigger frequent angry outbursts. Under stress, people often lose the patience they'd normally have.

1. Point out that for many people, simply understanding what's happening inside their bodies—what they've just learned—makes them feel less self-conscious about their physical stress reactions, and can even ease those symptoms.
2. Remind students that feeling stressed is never an excuse for hurting others or for neglecting responsibilities at school or at home.
3. If you don't plan to use the related BAM! activity "Feeling Frazzled? Stress and What to Do About It," consider copying and distributing the "Feeling Frazzled?" tip sheet, which offers 10 suggestions for relieving stress.

Elaboration and Evaluation (time will vary based on computer availability)

1. Have students explore the "Got Butterflies?" feature online. It reviews all the short- and long-term physical signs of stress and offers strategies for managing it. If students lack internet access, print the content and assign it as homework.

Performance Descriptors

For each criterion below, rate students from 3 to 0, with 3 being the highest score and 0 the lowest.

Scoring Rubric: The Body-Mind Connection of Stress

Performance Descriptor	Rating
Student completed the self-assessment of his or her own physical reactions to stress.	3 2 1 0
Student described the "fight or flight" response to stress in animals, including humans.	3 2 1 0
Student used class data on classmates' stress reactions to create an accurate bar graph.	3 2 1 0
Student analyzed and drew conclusions about his or her own individual reactions to stress.	3 2 1 0
Student explored the physical reactions of the human body under stress, including the role of hormones.	3 2 1 0

Extension

1. Some students may be interested in animal behavior. Have the...