Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘science’

Oct
13

Brain Rules: Every Brain is Wired Differently!

Posted in Child Development, parenting

By the time I finished reading this chapter of John Medina’s interesting science-for-dummies book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, I was scribbling notes frantically and reading quotes to my twelve-year-old son who was with me at Starbucks.  I’m slightly suspicious that my decaf mocha wasn’t really decaf, nonetheless, it was one of my favorite chapters in the book. It has so many implications for educating our children with finesse and gives hope for greater success.

The chapter on how our brains become wired is mind blowing.  That’s a bad pun, but it’s true!  As learning takes place, neural connections blow apart, or split, creating new connections. Like a highway system continually under construction, more learning equals more complex neural connections crisscrossing the brain. More is good! Medina points out interesting research done on the brains of violin performers for example.  Their brains resembled Seattle’s Spaghetti Bowl (For you non-Seattle readers, it is a complex section of highway on and off ramps south of town.)

It all starts at infancy, when the brain is hyper-developing.  A three-year-old’s brain has two to three times the neural connections in specific regions.  But he doesn’t get to keep them.  Interestingly, by the time the child reaches eight, his brain development is “pruned” and back to normal.  Then in puberty, another phase of frenetic neural growth happens until age 18 is reached. Doesn’t that explain a lot!

Just as kids come in all shapes and sizes in spite of age, Medina is quick to point out that brains develop as uniquely as bodies.  Early and late bloomers are encompassed in “normal,” even with respect to the brain. However, what we learn creates a unique neural configuration. So our brains are customized based on our experiences, like the violin player’s.  The modern science of brain mapping, where scientists can track the neurons firing (called “lighting up”), showed that even twins have individualized brains because of their unique responses to similar events.

Messy World of Brain Development

Every brain learns differently, concludes Medina and other brain researchers.  One neurosurgeon, Howard Gardner, wrote a book about his findings. Called Frames of Mind; the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner suggests other intelligences besides the old IQ measurement exist. His list includes: Verbal/linguistic, musical/rhythmic, logical/math, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal/intrapersonal, and nature.  Logically, different brain configurations would equal different skill sets. Brain surgeon, George Ojemann, maps brains and then does surgery to allow epileptic patients to get relief from seizures. As he stimulates different regions of the brain to find the trouble areas, he has observed that no universal regions for specific functions exist in the brain. That means that approximately 7 billion unique brains inhabit planet earth today.

Brain research merely reveals something we parents and teachers already know.  There are no two kids under our roofs, in our classrooms, or in our neighborhoods that are exactly alike. And as we pour our hearts into educating our kids to the best of our abilities, it is a very inexact science.  Medina concludes that exact thing:  “The ability to understand the interior motivations of someone else and the ability to construct a predictable theory of how their mind works based on that knowledge” is what is needed to help students learn.  We need to be students of our students!  And that takes time and proximity.  As we live and work with our kids, experience will help us discern the best ways for “teaching to be transformed into learning.”

Remember my failed experience teaching my daughter about Johnny Appleseed?  What I’ve learned about brain wiring tells me that it’s ok that my kid’s learning process is messy. My daughter’s singular after-class memory of “Jerry Somebody” provides clues into how her brain works. As I continue to observe how she learns best, it will lead to more insights and a better learning experience. My expectations are shifting as I understand there are no teaching formulas.  Finesse and success will come with experience.  And that’s what has given me an excitement equaling a coffee buzz!

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who finds the uniqueness of brains both exhilarating and exasperating!

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Jun
20

The Nature Smart and Body Smart Child

Posted in Child Development, Education, parenting, Things to do

This is the final blog in the series about making the “Multiple Intelligences Theory” practical. One of the things that I like about Howard Gardner’s ideas is that although our society tends to associate intelligence with word-smart and language-smart people, others shouldn’t be valued any less. They are intelligent, too.

This world would be a pretty dull place without the musicians, gardeners, scientists, actors, teachers, therapists, movie producers, artists, architects, dancers, sculptors, lawyers, archeologists and athletes.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart):

Nature smart children (as you might guess), feel a special affinity with nature, and love to explore and learn about the environment – from animals to cloud formations.  They prefer to be out of doors, doing activities like boating, hiking and camping. From a very early age they prefer television shows about nature or animals. They probably will beg you for a pet. Or three.

These children are good at organizing and cataloging the information from their natural surroundings, and you might expect them to come home with pockets full of rocks, shells, bugs, and plants, and know what they all are!  Nature smart children have keen senses (sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) which allow them to be aware of subtle changes and details in their environment.

If you have a nature smart child, they might grow up to be a gardener, biologist, archeologist, chef, farmer, geologist or even an FBI agent in a crime lab.

How to Encourage Your Nature Smart Child:

  • outside walks and hikes (take a guided tour of a local arboretum or botanical garden)
  • create a nature scrapbook with photos, drawings, pressed flowers, etc.
  • vegetable and flower gardening
  • take care of animals
  • collect and observe nature with a microscope or magnifying glass
  • stargazing
  • DVD Series like The BBC’s Planet Earth and The Seas of Life or Atlas of the Natural World
  • visit the zoo, aquarium or a natural history museum
  • building – volcano, terrarium, bird feeder

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart):

These children have the ability to skillfully manipulate both physical objects and their bodies. They have a good sense of timing and eye-hand coordination, and developed physical skills become like reflexes. Body smart children excel in activities like sports, dance and acting. They will likely frequently ask you to take them to the playground. They have a lot of energy, and don’t seem to sit still for long.

Body smart children have good fine and gross motor skills, and enjoy building as well as taking things apart and putting them back together. They learn by doing, rather than hearing or seeing. These children enjoy tactile experiences such as sand, water and play dough.

When they grow up, a body smart child might become an actor, sculptor, builder, dancer, pilot, athlete, surgeon, craftsperson, emergency worker or soldier.

How to Encourage Your Body Smart Child:

  • obstacle courses
  • hands on crafts – clay, finger painting, cutting with scissors, beading, tracing, knitting, sidewalk chalk
  • learn sign language
  • messy activities – cooking, gardening, building sandcastles, mud pies, water balloon fights
  • active games, both competitive and cooperative
  • skits and puppet shows
  • build small models or larger structures in your backyard
  • draw letters, shapes or simple pictures on each others’ backs and guess what it is
  • dancing

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who now appreciates even more the wonderful ways were are individually created.

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May
27

Music From Your Brain

Posted in Music and the brain

I read two very interesting articles recently. The first was an interview with Dr. Galina Mindlin, a Russian neuro-psychiatrist with Brain Music Therapy Center, and the second was a study published the by US Department of Homeland Security – Science and Technology. Now, I’m not quite sure why the Department of Homeland Security would have a S & T branch that would be doing research on “brain music”, but that’s another blog. With maybe a conspiracy theory tucked in there…

I digress. We’ve known from ancient times that music can heal. But did you know that all over the world, thousands of people listen to their own brain’s “music” to heal themselves? In brain music therapy, brain waves from an individual’s brain (captured through an EEG) can be converted into musical sounds through a complex mathematical formula and a computer, and used to treat insomnia, anxiety, migraines, and depression, even allowing patients to discontinue their medication.

In fact, studies show that brain music therapy works in 80 to 85% of patients who have tried it. (You really have to listen to your own brain’s music to be this effective – everyone’s sounds different, and your own brain produces the music best for you.) Dr. Mindlin says that your brain recognizes its own brain waves when you listen to your brain’s “music”.

But it’s not just for depression and migraines. Brain music therapy is said to heighten concentration, and elevated productivity, energy, and peak performance (especially in athletes). Musicians and artists have said that they experience increased creativity.

What does it sound like? Like classical piano, actually. Here’s an example.

The idea that your brain can make its own “music” that can either relax or stimulate its owner doesn’t surprise me in the least. In all I’ve read and experienced about sensory processing in children, our brains know exactly what we need, and children with or without sensory processing disorders crave activities that help the brain organize itself. And children find great pleasure and satisfaction in those activities.

For more information, visit Dr. Mindlin’s site – Brain Music Therapy.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who should, by now, really stop being surprised and amazed by the complexity of our brains. And wonders what her own brain music would sound like…

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Apr
26

The Scientific Method… before Kindergarten

Posted in Child Development, parenting

When I think of science, I usually recall my attempts at chemistry, physics, and biology. While I did thoroughly enjoy the subject matter, to this day I still vividly remember how unbearably hard I had to work because it was so rigorous. Most likely because it require a whole other side of my brain that was dominated by the artistic conceptualizing side.

However, science isn’t about memorizing data or facts, it’s about learning how to use a method of inquiry. It is a way to organize curiosity. We do this at a very young age. Infancy, in fact. When babies come into the world, they learn through their senses. Touch, taste, smell, sounds are all data that helps infants organize their physical world around them. Children continue to learn through their senses in their lives, in fact, we as adults do too.  As early as toddlerhood, children begin showing that they receive data and organize it. It could be a child stacking lids, or arranging toys by color or by size.

That is science! In order to be scientific, one must do science! This is when we ask questions, conduct investigations, collect data, and look for answers.

With young children, the best way to conduct science is to use natural phenomena. Why? Because children learn best when they can use their own knowledge as a stepping stone to new knowledge. Children need to have a chance to ask questions, do investigations, and use problem-solving skills. As adults, the best way to make this happen is to create or use an environment that naturally creates problems we have to solve.

For example:
David: “What is swimming in there?”
Teacher: “That’s a tadpole! Someday it’ll be a frog”
David: “But how does it become a frog?” (asking questions)
Teacher: “Let’s find out together”

The teacher and David could take out a book that has information about how tadpoles grow legs and lose their tails and develop lungs. Or the teacher could take out models of tadpoles at different stages of development. As adults, we help children to gather the information. Then together, the teacher and David could make a chart of different stages of frog development to help organize the information and then draw conclusions.

Presto! That is using the scientific method. In fact, children use so many skills when they conduct science. One-to-One Correspondence is a good example. Children could be counting the number of tomato seeds they will plant and then record it on a chart. Classifying is another skill children use all the time such as classifying all the seeds, either by type (fruit or vegetable) or by size, or by color, etc.  Measuring happens at school and outside school all the time. We could be pouring and measuring in the sensory table with sand, or measuring rainfall outside over time.

Using an organized method of inquiry not only helps children to develop the basics of science, but helps them to learn how to process new information. When we learn something new, our brains must process the information to put it into long term memory and thus increase the retention rate. We can teach children how to do this by using naturalistic experiences, or experiences where children naturally use their senses to absorb and process new information.

-posted by Teacher Aaron, who was stung by a bee at preschool and turned it into a teachable moment for the children. (But it still hurt!)

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Apr
23

Gardening = Family Togetherness

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Things to do

Spring has now sprung, but I’ve been waiting since last spring for it to begin again.  Why?  Last year Jack, (who was three) and I decided to plant a garden.  We had no idea what we were doing, so I bought a book called “Square Foot Gardening” to help us out.  I would not have predicted it would become such a family affair!  

When my husband saw us getting all our supplies together, he pitched in to help build a 4 foot by 4 foot raised bed. Jack picked out seeds, and then we pretty much threw some into this “bed”, kept it watered and weeded and just waited.  Since we plopped our garden in the front yard right in front of the kids’ bedroom windows, we watched everyday for some sign of plants to begin.  As soon as our little sprouts pushed out of the dirt, we were hooked!  By the end of the season we had harvested about 6 different types of veggies.  

It started an outdoor obsession.  We jumped to the window every morning to see if anything new had arrived.  What we found?  Not only were veggies appearing, but local wildlife was coming and going as well.  We took things a step further.  We made a couple of bird feeders.  One was a giant pine cone covered in peanut butter and rolled in bird seed.  The second was a ceramic saucer and an old twig wreath that we hung out with twine.  Neither was squirrel-proof.

 We ended up getting a “professional” kind at the hardware store. Since then we’ve seen at least 12 different types of birds and the kids run to find our bird book when a new one comes to dine.  We’ve even seen several Woody Woodpeckers.  We’ve also seen rabbits and squirrels.  Each step has been a great exploration in wildlife right in our own front yard.  

Because we had other “families” to care for and observe, each of us felt invested and the responsibility to take care of the little plants and animals.  They had to be watered and feed. Even the worms were acknowledged!  Finding worms is like finding a diamond in our garden. Finding a “big fat worm!” as little 2 year old William says, means the dirt for the plants is healthy.  When it was time to put our garden to bed for the winter everyone pitched in.  

To get ready for our spring garden this year, we were able to start early when Jack received a great birthday present.  An indoor garden experiment.  Science on a Garden Experiment from The Young Scientists Club.  Being a year older and having already gotten to start a family veggie garden, he couldn’t wait to get this one started.  With 20 different experiments from planting seeds to learning about underground animal dwellers to making a sundial, this little “garden in a box” was a perfect prep to our outdoor vegetable extravaganza.  

Our garden has been the best form of family togetherness.  It has something for each person, and the kids are learning everything from teamwork and responsibility to actual science!  It was such a success that we got Nana’s garden in California going last month and have hopefully inspired others to try it as well.  

-posted by Heidi Forrester and family who have about 12 different veggies growing right now. (14 if you add 2 little boys to that number!)

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