Thoughts About Brain Basics

Week 1

Task 6 - Brain Basics


d. Think about how learning about some basic concepts about the brain helps you understand a little about how your own brain works.
How do you suppose those ideas connect to teaching and learning?

                                             

This interesting interactive neuron action demonstration help us better understand about how the brain works.

Here are some of my explorations during the first week of the course

• Educational neuroscience on Wiki link

• University of Cambridge - Centre for Neuroscience in Education link
• Trends in Neuroscience and Education link
• Neuroscience Science of the Brain link (in Croatian)  
• Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning link

Here are a few articles that connect three fields that interest me the most:
neuroscience, education and music.
I plan to study them all very carefully during the coming period.

• Music and the Brain: From Perception to Emotion link
• A Well-Tempered Mind Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn link
• What are the implications of neuroscience for musical education?  link
• Music, Mind and Wellbeing Program Melbourne Neuroscience Institute
  link
• Music Training and the Brain Society of Neuroscience
  link
• Bringing the Classics Into the Classroom: How to Enhance Authentic Listening and Extended Literature Response in Middle School Through Music
  University of Washington
  link
• Music Education Beyond the Mozart Effect
  University of Washington
  link
• Neuroscience in Music Pedagogy
  Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Music Perception & Congnition, Evanston, IL, 2004
  link
• The Musical Brain: How Music Affects Development
  link

Try To Remember

Webcast archive of The DANA Foundation

Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (far right) join Paul R. McHugh, M.D. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, to discuss McHugh's new book, Try to Remember:  Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. William Safire (left), chairman of the Dana Foundation served as moderator.

Try To Remember - Edited Transcript (pdf)

Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning
Audio archive of The DANA Foundation
Training executive function is a big part of why we send kids to school. But what works best? The New York Academy of Sciences invited neuroscientists and educators to meet in Aspen to hash out what we know and how schools might change to help every child succeed.  http://www.nyas.org/Publications/EBriefings/Detail.aspx?cid=c49a5765-ad0e-472b-a252-e3799fb11332
mp3 recording

Here are some recommendations that I plan to give to my students, which I found on Texila American University site

• Want to keep your mind sharp and nourished? Here are 10 highly effective Brain Foods that improve memory, mood, concentration, and overall clarity. The Top 10 Brain Foods, Boost Your Brain Power & Energy
• How Sitting Too Long Affects your Body
• 5 Body Hacks to Supercharge Yourself
  A body hack is a usable technique that can make an improvement to improve a person’s life, health or mental state. These techniques are generally learned through real-life experience and are not necessarily medically recognized. Body hacks may work for some people and not for others and the only way to find out is to give them a try. Here are 5 body hacks we probably would be willing to try and one that we definitely wouldn’t.
• List of Harmful Effects Due To Excessive Sitting and Its Remedy
  Although most people know how harmful it is to sit for long hours every day, still, sitting remains something unavoidable. Just imagine a pie chart in front of you wherein you’ll list your activities per day. Then you’ll notice that after sleeping for 8 hours and working at the office for 8 hours also, you’ll find yourself sitting again in front of the television, reading or eating. If you’ll put color in your time spent sitting, you’ll probably set colors in 14 hours of it aside from the 8 hours you spend sleeping.
  
  There are very minimal body movements in our daily routine. So it should not be a surprise if we experience such dangerous effects due to excessive sitting. Here are just some of those harmful effects:
  
• Back pain
• Obesity
• Improper posture
• Heart problem
• Weaken immune system
• Blood clots

• These are some fun brain exer­cises to make our brain to increase the memory and attention power a lot. It’s been proven by the experts. It’s not too easy or too tough. Try it! And look the change inside yourself. Exercise Tips For Brain  to increase more concentration and memory power

• The human brain is the center of the human nervous system. Here are some of the interesting facts about human brain.  Biography of Brain

... and some interesting articles from the same site

• To most, yawning is a sign of sleepiness. But a new study shows that it could also be the body’s way of cooling down the brain. Yawning Cools Your Brain
• How does the body make electricity — and how does it use it? Without electricity, you wouldn’t be reading this article right now. And it’s not because your computer wouldn’t work. It’s because your brain wouldn’t work.
• Astounding benefits of Bananas

... and finally a recommendation

Brain in the News

ANDREW KAHN, EDITOR

Brain in the News is free monthly publication that reports on the progress made in the field of neuroscience. It features articles from a variety of sources, links to brain-related content on the Web, and an exclusive column from Guy McKhann, professor of neurology and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University.