Teaching Study Skills with Brain Science by Timmy Jo Forbes, et al

Teaching Study Skills with Brain Science

by Timmi Jo Forbes (primary author), H. Teresa Buckland, M.Ed, Susanna Cunningham, Ph.D., Mona Murr Kunselman, Ph.D., Jennifer Wilkinson, and Jenny L. Williamson, M.Ed.

As a learning disabilities specialist, I have found that parents, teachers and students often misunderstand learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I have also found it challenging to convince my sixth through eighth grade students that although their brains might be organized differently, they are smart and they can learn.
In search of facts and science to back up my assertions, I applied for the Making Connections 1997 Summer Institute sponsored by the University of Washington School of Nursing. After attending, I could hardly wait to take what I had learned back to my non-science Special Education English/Literature classes and try placing the new information into my curriculum.

Under the guise of teaching study skills, my sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes each spent six weeks learning how their brains worked so they could apply their new knowledge to how they studied and learned. We studied the brain and learned the names of the major structures using colored salt-dough clay to make our own "brains." We made each structure with a different colored dough and identified them with labels on toothpicks stuck into the clay brains. We made neurons out of pipe cleaners, straw segments, twist-ties and Styrofoam packing peanuts, and did other activities from the Brain Power curriculum (Pacific Science Center and Group Health Cooperative, 1993).We wrote "brain" vocabulary on note cards, with the definition and location (if applicable) on the back. We used the cards for daily review. The students made brain and neuron posters and diagrams to display in the hallways near our class.

To enhance reading, critical thinking and writing skills, students were assigned additional activities. Students read and outlined articles on brain studies from the local newspaper's science section and from a website, Newton's Apple: The Brain. We also used information from these articles as inspiration for writing creative Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde types of fictional stories.

A news report of the relationship between exercise and increased brain function in mice gave us the perfect opportunity to discuss the use of animals in research. The students used the news article as a model for their own news story written from the viewpoint of the mice.

Once a week we went to the computer lab and visited web sites about the brain and about studying and learning. The Neuroscience for Kids web site was a weekly favorite.

Back in the classroom we investigated perceptions to learn about the brain's ability to recognize patterns. We saw how the brain will make us see or hear or feel the missing piece of the pattern it receives. We rotated through three hands-on exploration centers: visual illusions, sensory illusions and auditory illusions. We experimented with long- and short-term memory tests and I taught memory strategies for studying and learning.

Two favorite class activities were a game of biweekly brain lotto and an Internet scavenger hunt for a list of "learning and the brain" items. We used a brain facts worksheet with vocabulary definitions and amazing facts for the brain lotto. I gave each student this worksheet at the beginning of the six-week unit. Students had to fill in a blank space within each numbered fact or definition with the correct missing fact, word(s) or definition from information they would be getting over the next six weeks. The students checked their brain facts worksheet for question numbers that corresponded to the daily lottery numbers in the newspaper every Tuesday and Thursday. On Fridays, I listed the fact numbers learned that week, circling any lotto "winners." If a student had answered the question, and I agreed that the answer was correct, he or she received point for each correct fact. I added these points as extra credit to the end of the unit grading.

The scavenger hunt took place during our weekly visit to the computer lab. I gave students a list of items to find and a list of web sites to visit. If they finished early, I instructed them to open the word processor and use as many of the found items as possible in a writing assignment. I asked them to use one of the story starters I supplied. They were to make sure the story made sense and used correct spelling and grammatical conventions. If they wanted to use their own story starter, they had to have it approved by me first.

For the culminating project of the unit, students outlined and created a PowerPoint™ presentation on the brain and learning. Each student's presentation showed the divisions and structures of the brain and a neuron and showed how the brain learns. Each presentation also included a favorite memory technique, the best ways the presenter had found to study and an inspirational quote used as motivation. Students used information and pictures that they had gleaned from web sites for their presentations. During the last week of the unit, we spent daily class time in the computer lab creating presentations.

Each student saved her or his presentation to floppy disk so that I could take the disks home for grading over the weekend. On Monday I gave the students evaluation sheets on clipboards, and we went to the computer lab. Each student set up her or his presentation. The students spent the class hour rotating through all of these, critiquing classmate's projects, assigning points and writing comments. I averaged the student points with my own to come up with a final grade. I included student and teacher comments on the grading sheet.

We loaded the presentations onto the computers during open house the following week, so students could show their parents what they had done and the school community could see their excellent work. The unit was a tremendous hit with everyone. Parents learned about the brain. Students demonstrated their knowledge about the brain. My students gained self-confidence, pride and a sense of accomplishment while learning ways to manage their school work.

Resources:

Group Health Cooperative and Pacific Science Center. Brain Power: It's All in Your Head Curriculum (1993) and Drugs and the Brain: Beyond Saying No (1998). Brain Power Program, 200 Second Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109-4895, (206) 443-2851. e-mail: brain_power@pacsci.org.

Chudler, Eric H., Ph.D. (1999) Neuroscience of Learning and Memory: Activities for the Classroom. Dept. of Anesthesiology, PO Box 356540, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-6540, e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu.

Brain Basics: Know Your Brain US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, NIH Publication No. 92-3440-a.

"Making Connections" University of Washington School of Nursing, 1(800)296-2917

Internet Resources:

Harvard Whole Brain Atlas.
http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html

It's All in the Brain, Senses and Illusions.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses/a/a110.htm

Neuroscience for Kids.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html

World of a Brain Surgeon.
http://members.aol.com/awasbrains/index.html

About the Authors:
Timmi Jo Forbes is Learning Disabilities Specialist at St. Mary Magdalene School, 8615 7^th Ave SE, Everett, WA 98208-2043. You can contact her via email: timmif@stmarym.org

H. Teresa Buckland and Jenny Williamson are Co-Directors for the Addiction: Hijacking the Brain Program and the Making Connections: Expanding Our Web program as well as program developers for the Brian Research in Education certificate Program at the University of Washington. Their emails are: trezbuck@u.washington.edu jenlw@u.washington.edu.

Susanna Cunningham is a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Washington. She is a principal investigator for Addiction: Hijacking the Brain, Making Connections: Expanding Our Web and Brian Research in Education. Her email is susannac@u.washington.edu.

Mona Kunselman is co-principal investigator on the Making Connections: Expanding Our Web and Brain Research in Education grant and is also Program Manager for Educational Outreach at University of Washington Extension. Her email is mkunselman@ese.washington.edu.

Jen Wilkinson worked with the Addiction: Hijacking the Brain and Making Connections: Expanding Our Web Programs at the University of Washington as an Educational Outreach Coordinator. She is currently a pursuing her masters degree at the University of Washington School of Education.

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