 Presentation of information  Thinking Routines to help us reflect on our own thinking and identify our own dispositions as learners.  Activities – individual or group

 What can learning about the brain teach us about how we learn?  How can examining our own dispositions help us achieve a better understanding of how we learn?  How can we develop strategies to help us with the process of learning?

1. What do you think you know about your brain? 2. What questions or puzzles do you have? 3. What does the topic make you want to explore?

We are learning more and more every day about how the brain functions and how that translates to behavior – including learning.

1.You only use 10% of your brain power. 2.You have 6000 thoughts every day. 3.Your brain uses as much energy as a refrigerator bulb. 4.Drinking kills brain cells. 5.Memory starts to get worse when you hit Doing Sudoku improves memory. 7.Listening to Mozart makes babies smarter.

 A cabbage  A raisin  A pillowcase  A grapefruit  String cheese  A walnut

Your brain is your most powerful organ, yet weighs only about three pounds. It has a texture similar to firm jelly. It has three main parts:  The cerebrum fills up most of your skull. It is involved in remembering, problem solving, thinking, and feeling. It also controls movement.  The cerebellum sits at the back of your head, under the cerebrum. It controls coordination and balance.  The brain stem sits beneath your cerebrum in front of your cerebellum. It connects the brain to the spinal cord and controls automatic functions such as breathing, digestion, heart rate and blood pressure.

 Your brain is nourished by one of your body's richest networks of blood vessels.  With each heartbeat, arteries carry about 20 to 25 percent of your blood to your brain, where billions of cells use about 20 percent of the oxygen and fuel your blood carries.  When you are thinking hard, your brain may use up to 50 percent of the fuel and oxygen.  The whole vessel network includes veins and capillaries in addition to arteries.

 The real work of your brain goes on in individual neurons.  Scientists call this dense, branching network a "neuron forest.”  Signals traveling through the neuron forest form the basis of memories, thoughts, and feelings.

 There are ~ 100 billion  Small enough for 30,000 to fit on head of a pin  Connects with thousands of other neurons Courtesy of Morphonix LLC, Sausalito, CA

Three major components:  Dendrites: Receive information from other neurons Courtesy of Morphonix LLC, Sausalito, CA

Soma: Cell body containing the nucleus, the brain of the neuron Courtesy of Morphonix LLC, Sausalito, CA

Axon:  Connects with other cells to transmit information  Can be up to several feet long! Courtesy of Morphonix LLC, Sausalito, CA

 Always active!  Constantly integrating and generating information  Hotbed of activity! Neurons don’t hibernate! Courtesy of Morphonix LLC, Sausalito, CA

 Signals that form memories and thoughts move through an individual nerve cell as a tiny electrical charge.  Nerve cells connect to one another at synapses.  When a charge reaches a synapse, it may trigger release of tiny bursts of chemicals called neurotransmitters.  The neurotransmitters travel across the synapse, carrying signals to other cells.

 100 billion nerve cells… 100 trillion synapses… dozens of neurotransmitters  This “strength in numbers” provides your brain’s raw material.  Over time, our experiences create patterns in signal type and strength. These patterns of activity explain how, at the cellular level, our brains code our thoughts, memories, skills and sense of who we are.

 Dendrites can grow at any age  Synaptic connections occur at any age; easier earlier in life  Brain is PLASTIC. Adaptable ‘Use it or Lose it’

If you were to write a headline that captures the most important aspect to keep in mind for this seminar, what would that headline be?

 With a partner, discuss your headline.  What are the similarities and differences in your thinking?

 Both hemispheres work together  Many functions occur simultaneously  Studies show that when more neurons in the brain were firing at the same time, learning, meaning, and retention were greater for the learner.

 Brain is malleable; our experiences help shape it.  It is like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.  Every time you try hard and learn something new, your brains form new connections.  Intellectual development is not the natural unfolding of intelligence, but rather the formation of new connections brought through EFFORT & LEARNING!