EDU270: Lesson 1

1. Brain plasticity. Go to the Web site Changing Brains: Effects of Experience on Human Brain Development and select Watch Online. When the link opens, view the video titled Brain Plasticity. After watching the video, answer the following:
1. Define brain plasticity.
2. Define sensitive periods.
3. List activities that lead to building a healthy brain.
4. Describe the impact of a knock on the brain (shaken baby syndrome) to a child.
5. Describe something new you learned that you did not already know.
6. Indicate how this information will help you in the classroom.

Brain Plasticity
a. Brain plasticity is the brain's ability to grow and change, particularly with experience.
b. Sensitive periods are when the brain is most able to have plastic changes. These are prime experiences under the age of 25 (when the brain stops being as plastic) that humans (particularly students) are more sensitive to learning something and creating a firm mental foundation.
c. Playing games, walks, preschool, talking with families, and I imagine much more such as contact with tactile objects, tasks with motor skill inclusion, and reading are all contributions toward brain plasticity during sensitive periods. Skipping these activities could require fixing before moving onto other skills and other sensitive periods.
d. Impact on different areas of the brain can have different consequences. For instance, hitting the occipital lobe could make someone blind, and damage to the prefrontal cortex could radically alter someone's personality, and other areas of higher emotional intelligence such as responsibility, plan making, decision making, and time management. In this particular section, Professor Neville supported what I've heard from Dr. Amen before about how the brain has the consistency of soft butter (https://youtu.be/MLKj1puoWCg), which Amen adds can be damaged not only from impact but from the sharp ridges inside the skull. Professor Neville says that the impact of the brain to the hard skull is enough, but I imagine Dr. Amen's contribution of research regarding the sharp ridges of the skill is enough to make us even more aware of the brain's sensitivity. At least for the purpose of this video, both the occipital lobe and the prefrontal cortex were damaged in the depiction of the shaken baby syndrome.
e. I didn't realize the brain was as small as putting your two fists together.
f. For my classroom, it's particularly interesting to note the sensitive periods for optimal learning. While I teach freshmen and juniors and while the really sensitive periods of their brain plasticity are over, I have noticed the effects on some children who -as in the case of this video- is a student whose foundation was built weakly and needs to be rebuilt. This particular student was someone who grew up in an abusive home, probably experienced something similar to shaken baby syndrome not to mention other brain damage from physical abuse, and is now a student who is having trouble learning concepts that he should have learned before my class. My understanding of brain plasticity and of sensitive areas helps me to find a way to access his learning. It's a kind of brain-hack ;)

1. Imaging/development. Go to the Web site Changing Brains: Effects of Experience on Human Brain Development and select Watch Online. When that link opens, view the video titled Imaging/Development. After watching the video, answer the following:
1. Science knows a lot about the adult brain. Describe why it is important to study the brains of young children.
2. What is the role of experience in building the brain’s architecture?
3. At what age is the brain fully mature?
4. Describe something new you learned that you did not already know.
5. Indicate how this information will help you in the classroom.

a. Scientists are using MRI's and other brain scanners on children to identify which parts of the brain grow at different stages. If scientists can learn more about brain plasticity and sensitive periods at more specific ages, this grants educators more knowledge about what information should be delivered in which manners.
b. As the human brain develops and goes through sensitive periods, experience creates more connections and neurological impulses as seen through brain plasticity. Between early childhood and early adulthood, a lot of the synapses of the brain drop off after steep development. In the video the example was that a two year old child has twice as many brain connections as her mom. Experience helps to determine which parts of the brain will become a staple part of the brain's architecture, and which will not.
c. Professor Neville says that the brain is done developing at age 25. Other brain books I've read develop this idea further, that women's brains typically finish developing at age 23 and men at 25. Additionally, other resources I've come across claim that the brain develops from bottom to top, from back to front, so the last area of the brain to develop is the prefrontal cortex. This is the center that features responsibility, time management, personality, and decision making which is why those tasks are generally acknowledged as more adult-level concepts.
d. I did not realize that synapses and connections were lost between early childhood and early adulthood. Based on some of my freshmen, I'm not surprised. Just kidding ;)
e.  This information will be helpful for understanding which experiences can be reinforced to help create stronger memories of lessons learned in my classroom.


After watching the videos on brain architecture, plasticity, and understanding the impact of the environment on a child, how does this information impact you as a teacher?

Less than a year ago, I took a Neurology and Law class which really interested me regarding neuroscience and elements of learning and decision making that affect us on a regular basis --whether we realize it or not. While most of the information in this lesson wasn't new to me, it is a positive reinforcement for me as an amateur student of neurology to remember that not all of my students have had the same fortunate or healthy experiences leading them to this classroom. With a little knowledge from me about how different learners can have different neurological backgrounds and with a little self-knowledge from them on how best they learn, we all can work together to get these students of all backgrounds to learn and love my English class :)