brain-based learning for the middle school student.
Middle school adolescents between the ages of 11 and 15 are going through a combination of stressors including hormonal, emotional, physiological and social changes - all of these changes are happening while their brains process a second burst of neural development (Willis, 2012). Present scientific advances in brain imaging allow brain scientists to look at how the brain works and confirm that these changes are physically taking place during the adolescent phase of development. Neuroimaging has confirmed that it is during the adolescent phase of development that physical growth exceeds mental processes. These facts are applied in Brain-Based learning and may provide new venues for both teaching and learning.
About the author.
Gisele Christian Conn holds a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction and is a Colorado licensed educator; she is also a professional artist. She is chair of the Spanish Language Department at Cherry Hills Christian Middle School, where she also directs the Art Program. Conn teaches both subjects - Art and Spanish - with an emphasis on authentic, hands-on methodologies – including brain-based learning techniques. Conn is the designer and author of this interactive and educational website. The website is an integral part of Conn’s master thesis on brain-based learning for the middle school adolescent student. The intent and purpose of this website is to share reputable, scientific, and educational data with other educators in order to increase brain-based learning in the middle-school classroom. All teacher tutorial design lesson plans are original and created by the author. All resources and materials used by other authors are noted, cited, and credited in each section.
Photography Credit: White Matter Fibers, MGH Dataset Close-up tubes. White matter fiber architecture of the brain. Measured from diffusion spectral imaging (DSI). The fibers are color-coded by direction: red = left-right, green = anterior-posterior, blue = through brain stem. Courtesy of the Laboratory of Nuero Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of of the Human Connectome Project www.humanconnectomeproject.org