Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Ben Gonzalez, Amy Himelright, Ginny Lindquist, Denise Lucht, Diana Matter, Niki Mott, Amy Pleasant, Cynda Zavaskis
Energy Usage
The brain accounts for only 2% of total body weight. It uses 20% of the bodys oxygen supply depleting 1 pints of blood per minute. It uses up to 30% of the total energy produced by the body.
Each hemisphere is specialized for a different cognitive style and treats time differently:
Under Construction
Between the ears, its a construction site: Birth 100-200 billion brain cells Age 5 brain reaches 95% of adult volume Age 12 construction is mostly finished Puberty neuronal growth spurt Age 20 connections in corpus collosum are complete
Brain Growth
New Growth (learning) still occurs even after our brain construct is in place. It occurs by dendrite development; branching well used neurons.
Brain Growth
As you read this your brain is using thousands of its 100,000,000,000 neurons. While that sounds like a lot of neurons, it is only about 20% of what you started out with. The brain prunes neurons that do not get used, and by adolescence our brain construct is in place.
Brain Growth
Dendrite branching occurs primarily during sleep, so it is essential that growing children and adolescents learn. . . . And then sleep on it!
Classroom Applications
Discuss the importance of sleep with students.
Allow students down time during the day for optimal performance. Give students the opportunity to move, stretch, drink some water, or change their focus periodically.
Classroom Applications
Classrooms need to be positive environments. Teachers need to nurture a positive attitude in their students. Laughing should be mandatory for all. Introduce positive affirmations or humorous reminders in the classroom. Remember we are not wasting precious learning time by including movement, breathing exercises, and humor.
Providing an enriched learning environment at school helps compensate for a lack of support at home Interaction with other high-achieving peers, teachers, and mentors Development of strong belief in self
Memory Pathways
Semantic WHAT Procedural Motor HOW Episodic WHERE Reflexive WOW
A brain under any type of perceived threat Loses ability to correctly interpret subtle clues from the environment Reverts to familiar tried and true behaviors Loses some ability to index, store, and access information Becomes more automatic and limited in its responses Loses some ability to perceive relationships and patterns Less able to use higher order thinking skills Loses some long-term memory capacity Tends to overreact to stimuli in a phobic-like way
Adolescent Brain
The hypothalamus is part of the medulla oblongata that regulates basic needs (eat, fight/flight, sex). In adolescents, hormones, environment, and learning make this a hot spot leading to often times impulsive acting out. The hypothalamus supercedes the prefrontal cortex which plays a role in making good, well thought-out decisions. While the hypothalamus is in over drive during adolescence, the pre-frontal cortex takes about 20 years to fully develop. Thus: your typical middle school classroom!
Classroom Applications
Teachers must teach with multiple approaches to the subject matter to successfully accommodate all of their students.
Boosting Learning
http://www.help4teachers. com is a website
Boosting Learning
Tips for layering curriculum Present Assignment Options Require Oral Defense of Assignments Offer Lectures as an OPTION Design and Offer Hands-on Activities for all Concepts Tie Students Grades into the Complexity of the Thinking involved.
Using Aromas
Smells affect the limbic area of the brain which is responsible for attention. Aromas that are useful for learning are lemon, cinnamon or peppermint.
Using Color
Colors create reactions and impact learners. Colors for optimum work environments include pastel blue, light green, aqua and some shades of yellow.
Color Meanings
Red: urgent, important Blue: factual, cold, impersonal Green: soothing, relaxing, positive Orange: playful, warm Black: dominant, serious, cold
Peripheral Stimuli
The brain can register 36,000+ images per hour! The brain devours pictures, movies and images. New research suggests that posters, pictures, and drawings are powerful influences on the brain.
Post positive affirmations. Use videos and multimedia presentations. Use colorful, inspirational, posters. Use more transparencies, pictures, and charts when presenting lessons.
Hydration
Researchers believe that thinking, problem-solving and creative processes are slowed when the body is low on fluids.
Classroom Applications
Model drinking water during class. Talk about the importance about hydration and the brain. Allow students to have water in sports bottles at their desks. Allow students to leave class to get a drink.
Classroom Applications
Include lots of stretch breaks. Have learners stand and do deep breathing exercises, neck rolls, etc. Review information using ball toss or musical chairs.
Everything that we have discovered about the brain in the last 20 years suggests that we need more stimulus, more change, more movement, and more perspectives in the classroom -Eric Jensen, Super Teaching
Early Identification
Measures of brain waves in babies 36 hours old successfully predicted reading abilities at age 8. Children who detected and responded in a certain way to speech-like sounds were found later to have higher IQs. Researchers goal is to detect giftedness and/or learning disabilities by 1 month of age and develop appropriate interventions. Native language of family is not a factor in the newborn testing results.
Nature or Nurture?
Brain wave measures at birth predicted at well above chance levels reading abilities at school age. So did activities in the home. Cognitive ability is one of the most heritable traits in neuroscience. Dr. George Betts replies, Yes.
Good News from Recent Brain Research Intelligence correlates to fewer auto accidents, better job performance, better health care results and longer life.
---The Science, January 2003
Works Cited
Brain Based Learning:Eric Jensen;2000; The Brain Store Publishing; San Diego, CA Brain Compatible Strategies;Eric Jensen; 1997; Turning Point Publishing; Del Mar, California Super Teaching; Eric Jensen; 1995. The Brain Store; San Diego, CA
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O'Boyle, M. W., & Benbow, C. P. (1990). Enhanced right hemisphere involvement during cognitive processing may relate to intellectual precocity. Neuropsychologia, 28(2), 211-216.
O'Boyle, M. W., Alexander, J. E., & Benbow, C. P. (1991). Enhanced right hemisphere activation in the mathematically precocious: a preliminary EEG investigation. Brain and Cognition, 17(2), 138-153. Alexander, J. E., O'Boyle, M. W., & Benbow, C. P. (1996). Developmentally advanced EEG alpha power in gifted male and female adolescents. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 23(1-2), 25-31. Jausovec, N. (1997). Differences in EEG alpha activity between gifted and non-identified individuals: Insights into problem solving. Gifted Child Quarterly, 41, 26-32.