THINKING ABOUT THE THINKING BRAIN Lesson 3

“What part of the neuron receives messages from other cells?” Remember last time we learned that brain cells are called neurons? Well, do you remember what part of the neuron receives messages from other brain cells? (Dendrites) Let’s take a minute and imagine what just happened in your brain to answer my question. Your eyes read the words on the screen and your ears heard: “What part of the neuron receives messages from other cells?” Your brain cells had to process the information it received from your eyes and ears and then signal other neurons to find the answer and retrieve the word Dendrites. Then even more neurons sent signals down to your mouth so you would say “Dendrites.” The brain sends signals from one neuron to the next, through electrical impulses going along the cell and then converting to chemical signals that flow across the synaptic space.   “Dendrites”

How much of the energy in your body is taken up by your brain? Take a Guess! How much of the energy in your body is taken up by your brain? How much energy do you think this process takes? PAUSE Remember: Your brain is only about the size of your fist, however it is the biggest energy eater in your entire body, burning about 30% of the fuel your body uses. PAUSE (compare the size of your fist as a percentage of your body i.e. what is 30%, about a third, what percent of your body is your brain/fist [3 lbs vs. body weight] )

YOUR BRAIN NEEDS ALL OF THE FOLLOWING: Fuel Sleep Exercise Challenge! With all that energy being used, your brain needs certain things to function well. Fuel: Your brain needs healthy foods with Omega-3’s such as Eggs, Nuts and Fish Sleep: Your brain needs to recharge for at least 1/3 of your day (8-9 hours of sleep). If not you forget things more easily. Exercise: Movement and exercise increase breathing and heart rate so more blood flows to your brain. A recent study found that walking actually improves memory. Challenge: If you don’t use brain cells, you’ll lose them. Research shows that the more you challenge your brain, the more connections you grow between cells. The more connections between cells the smarter you become.

GROWTH MINDSET AND CHALLENGE GROWTH MINDSET: You CAN learn, you CAN change, you CAN improve knowledge and performance, and you CAN become better at anything with continued effort, learning strategies, and help from others. Growth Mindset is also the understanding that learning is SUPPOSED to be hard. CHALLENGE: Research shows that the more you push yourself to work hard and challenge your brain, the more connections you grow between neurons, the amount of connections between brain cells increases, these connections become faster, grow stronger, and the result is that you become smarter.

VIDEO ABOUT GROWTH MINDSET https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=M1W71fI1wCM How many of you have ever stopped trying when your schoolwork became difficult, or because you did not believe you could succeed at something? (ask for show of hands) Who wants share about a time in school when you have struggled so much that you just wanted to give up, to stop trying? PAUSE Here is a motivational video from someone who you probably all know, who is considered to be very successful, talking about how important the right mindset is to success. Think about how you can adopt his positive growth mindset to how you think about school and schoolwork so that you will be able to fulfill your potential. (Show Video)

DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS VIDEO DEPICTING SOMEONE WITH A GREAT ATTITUDE AND A GROWTH MINDSET: Will Smith Words of wisdom from Will Smith . . . Think about each of these things he said that show a growth mindset: “Talent you have naturally, (but) skill is only developed by hours, and hours, and hours of (work).” I’ve never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is (my) . . . work ethic. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. There is no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you are not skilled. PAUSE for discussion

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHALLENGING YOUR BRAIN When you work hard at something the active neuronal pathways thicken with connections and get faster at making thoughts. (Read the slide) Remember what we learned about Grit and being gritty. Grit is a combination of both persistence and resilience. Persistence is when you keep going even when the going gets tough and you stay focused on the task at hand without getting distracted. Resilience is when you show toughness by bouncing back and trying again each time you get knocked down.

VIDEO ABOUT BEING GRITTY https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE How many of you have ever complained about things like: I’m too small, I’m not good looking enough, or I’m not smart enough? How many of you have ever said “I can’t do it?” (show hands) Well, here is an inspirational video about someone born into a difficult situation who has shown a great deal of persistence and resilience. This video is about someone who has true grit. (show video)

DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS VIDEO DEPICTING SOMEONE WITH A GREAT ATTITUDE AND A WHOLE LOT OF GRIT: Nick Vujicic In the video, Nick said there were times when he thought I can’t do this and I can’t do that, because he focused on the things he wished he had and he forgot about the things he did have. But wishing doesn’t help (it doesn’t change things.) It’s a lie to think you are not good enough. It’s a lie to think you’re not worth anything. Sometimes in life there are things that happen that you don’t . . . understand, and you don’t know if you are going to get through it, (but you do). And Nick was clear that he loves life. How can you adopt his positive attitude to school and your schoolwork so that you can become more gritty yourself. PAUSE & discuss

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR SUCCESSFUL LEARNING? Your memory doesn’t work as well when your brain doesn’t have enough energy or rest. When you get moving, and get more blood flowing to your brain, you actually help increase your memory. And even though school is hard, the more you challenge your brain, the better it gets at making connections and building new pathways. All of this leads to you being a smarter, more successful student. (Read slide first) If you just cram for a test the night before, and don’t study the material except at the last minute, why is your brain likely to forget the knowledge when the test is over? PAUSE (Answer: You didn’t practice a lot and your brain didn’t get enough sleep.)

SO REMEMBER... A Growth Mindset: and GRIT lead to SUCCESS! “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” and GRIT “Dream big and never give up.” lead to SUCCESS! Congratulations - you’ve worked hard and and stuck with it to reach the end of this Unit on Thinking about the thinking brain. Next time we meet we will be playing a brain quiz game together. So... Remember... (read the slide)

REFERENCES Duckworth, A. L. (2013b). True grit. The Observer: 26(4), 1-3. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Ballantine Books: Random House. King, R., & King, D. (2011). Step-It-Up-2-Thrive. Thrive Foundation for Youth, Menlo Park, CA. Smith, W. (2012, June 18). Motivation, success, greatness [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1W71fI1wCM Vujicic, N. (2010, March 4). Look at yourself after watching this [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE References