■ Do you love doing crossword puzzles or playing sudoku because you think it keeps your mind sharp? Well, think again. “Most of those things... »
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Education
Summertime and the learning should be easy
■ American students continue to fall behind their counterparts in the rest of the industrialized world in mathematics and science, according to the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Our high school reading and writing scores produce similar downward trending data. What can we do? How do we produce the best minds during a child’s elementary... »
Altered States
■ What is our true potential? How powerful are we? Are we destined to live out our lives based on patterns that we were born into? Or can we rise above our alleged “genetically determined” fates and environment to become who we want to be? Kelly Howell thinks we can. She credits meditation with helping her heal from a devastating car... »
Three Steps to Brain-Based Language-Learning
■ Despite the best efforts of teachers, students and parents, learning a new language is challenging, and at times can be frustrating or even traumatic. However, by applying a few basics of brain-based education — what neuroscience and educational psychology have taught us about the brain and learning — teachers can dramatically change what happens in their classrooms and inside... »
Character Development and the Brain
The story that began a course in Character Development A 16-year-old, 250-pound athlete stood before a classroom of doctoral students at an eastern university. His mother, the class’s professor, had invited him to speak about the impact of self-perception on a person’s life. The young man looked the part of the self-assured football player and track star. However, the class learned,... »
Brain Education in Schools
■ Brain Education is an educational program devoted to helping individuals better manage and utilize their brains. School staffers become “Brain Education Leaders” after undergoing an intensive week-long program designed to give individuals the experience and confidence they need to share Brain Education as a certified instructor for children and adults. The vision of the program is to “spread health,... »
Brain Power
■ From neurons to brain wiring, Dr. David Walsh gives an easy-to-understand tour of children's and teens' brain development and the impact of experience on the "wiring' of their brains. Children are shaped by the stories they see and hear from parents, relatives, and teachers which pass on values, attitudes, and affect emotional and physical... »
Building a Better Brain
■ If you are a teacher and it is your job to open minds, shouldn’t you know how the brain works? If you are a parent, wouldn’t an understanding of brain development provide useful insights into successful child-rearing? As the proud owner of the most complex object in the entire universe, understanding how the human brain works, and the kinds... »
Personalities: Howard Gardner
■ Throughout the 20th century, the American educational system was gripped by what one might call an IQ mania. If you studied in a public school, you probably remember the tests, and possibly your scores (in my school, scores were hidden, but we broke into the teacher’s desk during recess to find them). Before the age of neuroplasticity, mental capabilities... »
Battle of the Brains!
■ The pavilion atop New York University’s Kimmel Center is enclosed entirely in glass, like the bridge of some starship, with the illuminated city of Manhattan laid out beyond. On a recent February evening, it was filled with teenagers eating chips and salsa, some nervous, some giddy and bantering with each other. __ “Imagine being rich enough to live in a... »