Brain Research Applied to Learning

March 12, 2004Presented by:

Ben Gonzalez, Amy Himelright, Ginny Lindquist, Denise Lucht, Diana Matter,

Niki Mott, Amy Pleasant, Cynda Zavaskis

Stuff Brains Are Made Of

The brain consists of :8% protein10% fat72% water

If “ironed out,” the brain would be a 2 ½ square foot sheet of soft, fibrous, electrical and chemical activity.

Energy Usage

The brain accounts for only 2% of total body weight.

It uses 20% of the body’s oxygen supply –depleting 1 ½ pints of blood per minute.

It uses up to 30% of the total energy produced by the body.

High and Low Energy Times

Circadian rhythms – peaks every 90-110 minutes, low energy 45 minutes later.

Verbal and spatial skills especially vulnerable.

Sleep/awake patterns. Natural shift during teens.

Left Hemisphere vs. Right Hemisphere

Left Hemisphere

“ The Intellect”

Right Hemisphere

“The Imagination”

Each hemisphere is specialized for a different cognitive style and treats time differently:

Left HemisphereAnalyticSequential

Right HemisphereHolistic &

intuitiveSimultaneous

Under Construction

Between the ears, it’s a construction site:Birth – 100-200 billion brain cellsAge 5 – brain reaches 95% of adult volumeAge 12 – construction is mostly finishedPuberty – neuronal growth spurtAge 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!

Sleep’s Impact on the Brain

The brain needs deep physiological rest to perform at its best. The REM period (the dream state) is the most critical. Being deprived of sleep impairs learning and thinking. Students living with the following are at a much higher risk for having sleep deprivation:

Abusive or highly stressed families Areas of high crime or poverty Those impacted by trauma

The Results of Sleep Deprivation

Learners who are not getting enough sleep may perform well on short quizzes requiring rote memorization.

However, may not do well on extended performance testing requiring stamina, creativity, and high-level problem solving.

Sleep deprivation contributed to three major accidents in recent times:

Three Mile Island Challenger Explosion

Chernobyl

Sleep Tonight/ Remember Tomorrow

Missing as little as two hours of sleep may significantly impair a person’s ability to remember information the next day.

There appears to be a direct correlation between how complex the material is and how important sleep is to learning it. Bob Stickgold at Harvard University (1997)

“Cleaning the Desktop”Sleep allows the brain time to “unlearn”

By eliminating unnecessary information (usually during sleep time), the brain becomes more efficient.

Sleep gives the brain time to rearrange circuits, clean out unimportant mental debris, and process emotional events. (Freeman 1995)

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.

Power of Positive Thinking

The single greatest influence on learners is the classroom climate. Learners in a positive, joyful environment are likely to experience enhanced learning, memory, and feelings of self-esteem. (Rosenthal and Jacobsen 1968)

Research suggests that a “positive learning climate” promotes better problem-solvers and higher quality learning. In short, if we feel good, we learn better.

Learning is dependent on the physiological, emotional, postural, and psychological state that your learners are in. Learning and teaching flow easily when the proper emotional state is established. (C. Levinthal 1988 and Robert Sylvester 1995)

Laughter and Learning

Laughing increases the white blood-cell activity.

Laughter may boost the body’s production of neurotransmitters critical for alertness and memory. (William Fry, PhD. 1997)

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.

Enriched Learning Environments

New brain cells grow in an enriched environment.

Five keys to enrichment

Novelty Challenge Coherence Time Feedback

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

Boredom and the Brain

Boredom is debilitating. Studies involving

adolescent rats showed they were especially devastated by boredom. A boring environment had a greater thinning effect on the brain’s cortex than an enriched environment had on the thickening of the cortex. (Marion Diamond, PhD. 1998)

Stress & Threat

Learners in a state of high stress or threat -Experience reduced cognitive abilitiesHave weakened immune systems

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 pre-frontal 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!

Helping Adolescents Learn

Keep them safe (physically and emotionally)

Keep them fed!Keep them rested!Keep them INTERESTED!

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 dedicated to “Layering Curriculum”, thus making it interesting for the learner.

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.

Music With a Purpose

Music can energize, relax, and increase productivity.

Music can boost intelligence.

Music can cause us to feel irritated and stressed.

When to Use Music

Background music.Brainstorming, problem solving.Celebrating successes.Opening, closing rituals.Transitions

Making the Right Music Choices

Relaxation: 40-60 BPM Alert: 60-70 BPMActive: 70-120 BPM

* To avoid saturation, use music 30% or less of class time

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, impersonalGreen: soothing, relaxing, positiveOrange: playful, warmBlack: 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 colorful, inspirational, posters.

Use more transparencies,pictures, and charts when presenting lessons.

Use videos and multimedia presentations.

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.

Exercise & Activity

Active learning increases blood flow in the body and brings more oxygen to the brain. It also triggers the release of endorphins.

Activities learned with the body are more likely to be recalled and applied.

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.

Food for Thought

MEMORY CARROT: Activates

the metabolism of the brain.

PINEAPPLE: Contains high amounts of vitamin C and manganese .

AVOCADO: For short term memory. It contains plenty of fatty acids.

HAPPINESS RED PEPPER: The

aromatic substances activate the body to excrete endorphin.

STRAWBERRY: Abolishes the stress. The fiber contents give happiness.

BANANA: Supplies serotonin…

More Food for Thought

 LEARNING CABBAGE: Slows down the

activity of the thyroid glands.

LEMON: Due to the vitamin C that it has, it makes one lively and increases the perceptive ability

ATTENTION SHRIMP: Supplies the body

with the omega 3 fatty acids.

ONION: Dilutes the blood

CREATIVITY GINGER: The substances

that it contains enable the brain to produce new idea.

CUMIN: The evaporating oils that it contains stimulate the nervous system for creative thinking.

 

 

Brain Strategies for Learning a Foreign Language

The best time to introduce your child to the sounds of different languages is before the age of two.

The best time for the brain to learn foreign languages is between ages one and ten.

“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

The Latest in Brain Research

And what it means for gifted identification and education

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 foundlater to have higher IQ’s.

Researchers’ goal is to detect giftedness and/or learning disabilities by 1 monthof age and develop appropriate interventions.

Native language of family is not a factor in the newborn testing results.

Possible Reasons for Giftedness

Prenatal testosterone exposureEnhanced RH development Also connected with higher

incidence of left-handedness. Higher incidence of immune

disorders:Allergies, asthma, depression,

diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome etc.

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”.

Some Differences in Gifted Brains

Intelligent people use their brains more “efficiently” and thus use “less brain energy.”

Have neural activity in several brain regions, all focused on task at hand.

Better able to stay focused and keep new information in mind “in the face of distraction.”

Left/Right Hemisphere Involvement

Greater RH activity during cognitive processing may relate to math precocity.

Ability to use both RH and LH at an early age may be linked to giftedness.

Gifted adolescents were shown to have brain activity like that of college-age adults.

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

Molfese, D. L., & Molfese, V. J. (1997). Discrimination of languageskills at five years of age using event-related potentials recorded atbirth. Developmental Neuropsychology, 13(2), 135-156.

Fisher, P.J., Turic, D., Williams, N. M., McGuffin, P., Asherson, P.,Ball, D., Craig, I., Eley, T., Hill, L., Chorney, K., Chorney, M. J.,Benbow, C. P., Lubinski, D., Plomin, R, & Owen, M. J. (1999). DNApooling identifies QTLs on chromosome 4 for general cognitive ability in children. Human Molecular Genetics, 8(5), 915-922.

Molfese, Victoria J., Dennis L. Molfese, and Arlene A. Modgline.Newborn and Preschool Predictors of Second Grade Reading Scores: AnEvaluation of Categorical and Continuous Scores.  Journal of LearningDisabilities.  Nov/Dec2001, Vol. 34, Issue 6, p545, 10p. 

Jausovec, N; Jausovec K.  Differences in EEG current density related tointelligence.  Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research.  2001 August12(1), pp. 55-60. 

Holden, Constance. Practical Benefits of Intelligence, Physiology of IQ.The  Science. 2003 January 10, pp. 192-193.

Gray, Jeremy R., Christopher F. Chabris & Todd S. Braver. Neuralmechanisms of general fluid intelligence.  Published on-line 18 February2003, within www.nature.com 

Goode, Erica. Brain Scans Reflect Problem Solving Skill. New York Times.17 February 2003. 

O'Boyle, M. W., & Benbow, C. P. (1990). Enhanced right hemisphereinvolvement during cognitive processing may relate to intellectualprecocity. Neuropsychologia, 28(2), 211-216. 

O'Boyle, M. W., Alexander, J. E., & Benbow, C. P. (1991). Enhanced righthemisphere activation in the mathematically precocious: a preliminaryEEG 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 femaleadolescents. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 23(1-2), 25-31. Jausovec, N. (1997). Differences in EEG alpha activity between giftedand non-identified individuals: Insights into problem solving. GiftedChild Quarterly, 41, 26-32.