Rewritten October 2026. The first version of this post (2019) mapped kits we have since renamed or retired, so we started over.
Standards have a reputation for squeezing the fun out of a lab. They do not have to. The NGSS ask students to plan investigations, analyze their own data and argue from evidence, which is exactly what happens when a class hears a cockroach neuron fire for the first time and someone asks why the spikes got faster.
The two performance expectations that matter most for hands-on neuroscience are MS-LS1-8 (sense receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain) and HS-LS1-2 (the body as a hierarchy of interacting systems). Almost everything we make lets students test those two ideas with their own recordings.
How our course and kits line up
Below is how our high school course and our robot kits line up with the NGSS performance expectations. The course codes come straight from the course’s own alignment tables. Where a code is our own reading rather than a written lesson, we say so.
Hands-On Neuroscience: A Laboratory Skills Course for Grades 9–12
Fourteen modules in three units, each one built around a recording students make themselves. Nearly every module meets two performance expectations: MS-LS1-8 (sense receptors send messages to the brain) and HS-LS1-2 (the body as a hierarchy of interacting systems). A few go further, noted below. Every module also works the science and engineering practices, from asking questions to arguing from error bars.
Unit 1, Neurons (Neuron SpikerBox): students record spikes from sensory neurons in a cockroach leg.
- 1.1 See and Hear a Neuron: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 1.2 Neurons for Touch: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 1.3 Neuronal Adaptation: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 1.4 Neuropharmacology: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 1.5 Capstone research project: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
Unit 2, Systems (Human SpikerBox): students record their own muscles and reflexes.
- 2.1 Muscle Fatigue: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2, HS-LS1-7 (fatigue ties the nerve signal to ATP from cellular respiration), with HS-LS1-3 in support
- 2.2 Motor Units and Recruitment: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 2.3 Reaction Time: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 2.4 Reflexes and Reactions: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2, HS-LS1-3 (the reflex arc as protective feedback)
- 2.5 Capstone research project: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
Unit 3, Brains (Human SpikerBox with EEG): students record their own brain waves.
- 3.1 See Your Own Brain: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 3.2 The P300 Response: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
- 3.3 How to Read Like a Scientist: a practice module on judging evidence, which every performance expectation leans on
- 3.4 Capstone research project: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2
More on the course, and on buying a class set, is on our page for teachers.
Robots that run on biology
These kits put a living signal (or a model of one) in charge of a machine. That makes them engineering kits as much as biology kits.
Spiker:bit: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2, HS-ETS1-2. Students record their own muscle signal on a micro:bit and code it into a servo, a game or a robot hand. The codes are from our Spiker:bit classroom lesson plan.
SpikerBot: students wire a brain out of spiking neurons and watch the robot behave. Its first lesson is built on two NGSS core ideas: LS1.A (a network’s structure decides what it can do; cross the wires from the eyes to the motors and the robot chases its target) and ETS1.B (change the brain, or the environment, until the robot solves the problem). In performance expectations, our reading is MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2, MS-ETS1-4 and HS-ETS1-2. The rest of the SpikerBot lessons are still being written, so treat this as a starting point.
The Claw: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2. Flex a muscle and a robotic gripper closes. It is the same muscle physiology as Unit 2 of the course, aimed at a neuroprosthetic. This is our mapping.
RoboRoach: MS-LS1-8, HS-LS1-2. Students steer a cockroach by stimulating its antenna nerves, then watch it adapt and ignore the stimulation. It uses live animals, so it suits supervised high school and college labs. This is our mapping.
Going further: the Neuroscience Core Concepts
The Society for Neuroscience publishes the Neuroscience Core Concepts on BrainFacts.org: eight big ideas, from “Your Complex Brain” and “How Neurons Communicate” to “How Research Benefits Human Health”. SfN also maps those concepts against the NGSS for every grade band in one chart: Neuroscience Core Concepts and the NGSS (PDF). It is the best single page for seeing where neuroscience fits in your scope and sequence.
Questions about a specific standard or lab? Our page for teachers has the kits, class-set pricing and how to reach us.