What does a nerve cell look like? A fried egg provides a great visual of a cell, but needs some modification to look like a nerve cell. If you're not afraid of a little clean up, try this with your children – put it on the table and smash it with the palm of your hand, splattering it across the table. You should have a many-pointed star. Now take one of the points and stretch it out away from the “body” of the egg, then take your thumb and squish the farthest region of the point you just stretched. You now have a visual representation of a nerve cell, or neuron – two smashed stars connected by a long, thin line. The original smashed piece represents the nerve’s cell body, and the star points are dendrites, while the stretched out region is called an axon, and the starburst at the furthest end is the axon terminal. Talk about an effective demo, huh? I can't take credit for this one - it's adapted from John Medina's Brain Rules, from which I also quote below.
“Occasionally, the end of one neuron swells up, greatly increasing in diameter. The terminal ends of the other neurons split down the middle like a forked tongue creating two connections where there was only one. Electricity crackles through these moving neurons at blinding speed…with clouds of neurotransmitters filling spaces between the neuron trunks.” The human brain is learning!
“As neurons learn, they swell, sway, and split. They break connections in one spot, glide over to a nearby region and form connections with their new neighbors. Many stay put, simply strengthening their electrical connections with each other, increasing the efficiency of information transfer.” The brain is constantly learning, so the brain is constantly rewiring itself.
The human brain is only partially constructed at birth, with the majority of construction being finished by the mid-20s and fine-tuning carried on well into your 40s. When babies are born, their brains have about the same number of connections as adults have; but by the time they are 3 years old, the connections in specific regions of their brains have doubled or tripled. It doesn’t last though, as the brain will actually trim back a lot of this expansion and return to adult numbers by the age of 8. Then the process starts again at puberty with connections settling down to adult numbers in the late teens. Though the larger pathways in the brain – the neural equivalents of interstate freeways and state highways - are fairly consistent, individual patterns are evident when you get to the smaller routes – the brain’s equivalent of residential streets and dirt roads. “Whether examining toddlers or teenagers, different regions in different children develop at different rates.”
Here’s the educational application …
Our current educational system, particularly the classroom model, is based on a series of expectations that certain learning goals should be achieved by a certain age. But does everyone’s brain follow that one pattern? Students of the same age show a great deal of intellectual variability. About 10% of students do not have brains sufficiently wired to read at the age at which we expect them to read. And this is not the only subject area for which the brain’s readiness can vary.
Rather than fix your expectations on any particular scope and sequence, present the opportunities and observe your child. In the homeschooling setting it is much easier to vary your approaches and your timing for learning opportunities. If your child does not appear to grasp a concept quickly, consider whether you may be introducing it too early for that child. Pull back and reinforce what they have grasped, or try a different approach for introducing the concept. Incorporate as many of your child’s senses – seeing, smelling, hearing, touching and even tasting – in their learning environment and watch the outer evidence of the brain’s rewiring in action. What an incredible adventure you are sharing with your child!
Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment