Two Ears Nina and the Neurons: Brilliant Bodies

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses while helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

# Touch your tongue Tongue!

# Fingers Fingers!

# Eyes. Eyes! Ears. Ears! Nose. Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother, he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place!

# Touch your tongue Tongue!

# Fingers Fingers!

# Eyes. Eyes! Ears. Ears! Nose. Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh yeah! #

# Doo doo-doo doo-doo-doo. # Ha-ha!

Wee!

Oh, hello there. Oh-ho-ho-ho!

I'm sorry. I didn't realise you were there. I'm listening to some music

-on my favourite headphones.

-ALARM SOUNDS

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

-ALL: Hi, Nina!

-Hi!

-We've got a question for you.

-Why do we have two ears?

That's a great question. Why do we have two ears?

We only have one nose and one mouth,

so there must be a reason why we have two ears.

Come down to the lab and we'll do some experiments.

ALL: See you soon, Nina. Bye.

I'm going to need help to answer this one and I know who to ask.

OK, Neurons. Time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK. Today's question is - why do we have two ears?

Which Neuron do you think will be most useful in helping us?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear.

If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

-Will it be lovely Luke?

-For looking and seeing day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy, but you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

COMPUTER BLEEPS

-Belle!

-Yes!

ALL: Go Belle! Go Belle! Go Belle! Go Belle!

Go Belle! Go Belle! Go Belle!

Brilliant! I'm all ears, Nina.

Today's question is - why do we have two ears?

Belle, our hearing Neuron, will be helping me today.

Right. I need to get the lab ready before the experimenters arrive.

Lana likes singing, Finlay likes maths

and Eve loves roast dinners,

but they all want to know why we have two ears.

Today, for one day only, Lana, Finlay and Eve

become the experimenters!

-Hi, guys.

-Hi, Nina.

-Welcome to my science lab. Come in.

You asked why do we have two ears, which is an excellent question.

-But why do you want to know?

-I only have one nose and one mouth.

-Why do we have two ears?

-You're right.

We do only have one of some things.

I think we need to do some investigating to find out why

we have two ears and for our first experiment, we're using our senses.

ALL: Whip-woo! A senses experiment! We're ready, Nina!

When we're somewhere busy with lots of people,

there can be lots of noise.

This experiment will help us understand

why having two ears can help us in a noisy place.

I'd like you to cover up one of your ears with these special headsets.

They stop the sound from getting to that ear.

I have a recording of my voice with lots of other noisy sounds.

I want you to listen carefully and figure out what I'm saying.

-Are you ready, experimenters?

-ALL: Yes!

And you could cover one of your ears with the flat of your hand like this

OK, here goes.

VARIOUS SOUNDS NINA'S VOICE IN THE BACKGROUND

-What sounds did you hear?

-Ring-ring.

A baby crying.

Moo.

Ha-ha! A moo! But did you hear what I was saying?

No?

Hmm, I think we should try the experiment again,

and this time, you'll be using both of your ears. So headsets off.

And get ready to listen.

VARIOUS SOUNDS NINA'S VOICE IN THE BACKGROUND

"..Bubble and pop and...sunny days.

"..Every day...and my favourite colour is pink."

-What did you hear this time?

-Bubbles and pop!

My favourite colour is pink.

Every day.

-Sunny days!

-Oh, brilliant!

My noisy experiment worked!

It's shown us that having two ears helps us to hear better.

Even when there were of different sounds, like the cow mooing,

when you listened with both ears you were able to make out my voice

and understand more clearly what I was saying.

But not everyone can hear well with both ears.

That's right, Belle. Some people find that one or both of their ears

don't work so well. When that happens, they use a hearing aid.

That can help them hear better.

By wearing one of these in their ear, they can be helped

to hear better or more clearly.

So we've discovered that in noisy places two ears can help us

to hear better, but there's another reason for using both our ears.

We need to go outside. get ready to use those ears!

ALL: Yay!

I can't wait to see where we'll end up.

Nina said it would be a place where they'd have to use their ears.

Maybe it's somewhere with lots of musicians.

Chicka-baw-waw!

Sharpen your senses, Neurons. We're here.

OK, experimenters. Listening carefully with both of our ears

is really important in helping us to stay safe when we cross the road.

When we're waiting to cross a road, we should always stop

and use our eyes to look for cars, but we should also use both ears

to listen carefully, to hear if a car's coming.

But remember, young children should always cross the road with an adult.

-Are you ready to cross the road with me?

-Yes, Nina!

OK. First we need to find a safe place to cross.

So why is this a good place to cross the road?

There are no parked cars and we can see in both directions.

That's right. We should never stand between parked cars

and we must always make sure we can clearly see in both directions.

Let's look around for traffic and listen very carefully

because sometimes we can hear a car before we see it.

CAR IN THE DISTANCE I can hear a car from over there.

So can I, Nina.

I can see it now.

OK, now the car has passed, let's look and listen carefully again.

We can't see or hear anything coming, can we?

-ALL: No, Nina.

-So, it's safe to cross.

But we must keep looking and listening all the way. Come with me.

Well done, experimenters! Our brilliant ears did a great job

helping us to cross the road safely.

But our ears didn't just tell us a car was coming.

Did you notice they also told us where it was coming from?

Yes. We could hear it was coming from over there.

So, our ears warned us of danger and told us where that danger was.

This is really important in helping us to stay safe.

But how do our two ears help us work out where noises are coming from?

-We need to go back to the lab for one final experiment.

-Yay!

We're going to play a game using sound.

-I need a volunteer to do some listening.

-I'll do it, Nina!

Brilliant! I love games!

OK, Finlay. You're wearing a blindfold.

I want you to only use your ears for this game.

Your friends are going to be walking around in a circle.

When you hear them make this sound...

-TING

-I want you to use your flag

-to point where you think the sound is coming from.

-OK, Nina.

-Here we go.

-MUSIC PLAYS

TING

TING

TING

Well done, Finlay! Your ears did a great job there.

Let's try the experiment again, but you'll only be using one ear

because I'm going to pop on the special headset.

This will definitely be trickier.

TING

TING

TING

OK, Finlay. You can take your headset and blindfold off now.

You weren't always able to point to the sound this time.

-Let's find out why.

-I found it more difficult too,

using one ear.

When something makes a sound like our triangle,

the sound reaches one ear before the other.

The sound has to travel further to reach the second ear

and this takes longer.

Our brains are able to work out which ear the sound reached first,

so if it reached this ear first, then the sound must be on this side.

And, Finlay, when you were using two ears during the experiment,

this was how your brain was able to work out

where the sounds were coming from.

When we covered one ear, your brain found it harder to work out

and you didn't always point in the right direction.

So, your question was - why do we have two ears?

I think we've answered it.

In busy places, when there's lots of noises all happening at once,

listening with two ears is better than one.

It helps us to hear and understand more sounds more easily,

especially what people are saying.

Listening with two ears also helps us to work out

exactly where a sound is coming from as the sound reaches the ear

closest to it first, so I hope that's answered your question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina! Bye!

Bye!

If you want to find out more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina section of the CBeebies website. Have fun!

# Hearts beating, lungs breathing

# Fingers feeling, mouths eating

# And don't forget your brain!

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Inside and a-a-out

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Come on, let's find out about

# A handy hand and bendy knees

# Stretchy backs and noses that sneeze

# We all have brilliant bodies

# Brilliant bodies!

# Every part has a job to do

# Even scabs and earwax too

# We all have brilliant bodies

# Brilliant bodies!

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Lashes to protect our eyes

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# And don't forget to exercise. #

I really enjoyed myself today,

finding out how hearing aids help some people hear better.

Ah, it's been such a great day, man,

looking out for cars when you cross the road.

I've had a fabby day! I loved the game with the triangle!

Remember, everyone's body is different, but we're all brilliant!

See you again soon! Bye!

ALL: Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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