Phase III Briana Lackman, Kelly Deane, Sarah Cosgrove, Danielle Roth
Our group created a survey for students to take in order for us in get insight on the way they learn best. The survey allowed people to choose from three different types of learning as well as other relevant aspects of learning. They could choose visual, auditory, kinesthetic or any combination of them as the way they learn best. In the survey we made sure to briefly explain what each of these types of learners consisted of more specifically so the students knew what they were going to pick. We put the survey on a half sheet of paper and handed it out to each of our Psychology classes, as well as a variety of other students to get a more representative set of data. By handing out the survey on a piece of paper we eliminated a form of bias; since we did not ask the survey questions directly to the participants, we were not able to subconsciously influence their response.
Once we collected our data, we counted the samples and separated the results by male, female, and then did an overall total. We transferred our data into a couple different types of graphs to make it easier to understand for the visual learners. Our data showed us that the most popular form of learning, among the people we surveyed, was kinesthetic, with 39 percent. By knowing this, we can ensure we include a teaching technique that is favorable for the hands-on learners. We will include a model that the student can get up close to and examine it. This was closely followed by visual learning, which was chosen by 33 percent of our peers. Since this type of learning is also largely popular, we will make sure our teaching strategy reaches out to the visual learners too. We will be using a funny and memorable video that most learners will benefit from. Two percent of the people we surveyed chose both kinesthetic and visual as the way they learn best. With this, we know that people may be more than just one type of learner. Auditory was only chosen by 13 percent of the people we surveyed, but visual and auditory was chosen by seven percent. So again the video will work well for these students. They will get to not only hear the information but also watch it be explained through demonstrations. Six percent of the people we surveyed said that they learn the best when all three types of learning (kinesthetic, visual, and auditory) are used. Again we can conclude that people may utilize more than one learning strategy. We know we should create a teaching strategy that accounts for all types of learners.
From our data, we learned that everyone learns in a different way. In order to sufficiently teach a class as a whole, the best solution would be to come up with a teaching strategy that meets the needs of all of the students. Since kinesthetic and visual learners made up the majority, we will try to incorporate both ways of learning in our teaching strategy the most. There were a small amount of auditory learners among our peers, so we will include some visual aspects too. To make our strategy the most efficient our techniques will intertwine together and help all learners understand neuroscience. After evaluating this data, it was clear that the majority of learners would benefit greatly if we provided a hands-on learning strategy. Therefore, we concluded that having a model of the brain and additional scenario questions would be an accommodating learning technique for the majority of our learners. Due to visual learning being closely followed by kinesthetic learning, showing a memorable video based on the information would be helpful for our peers who learn more effectively visually. Visual learners can also match up words of the parts of the brain to a diagram. A video would also help the auditory learners that learn best by hearing the information.
We decided that the four techniques that would go together the best to make a useful learning strategy would be to have a movie, then examine a diagram of a brain, followed by a case study, and finally would be wrapped up with group discussion and debate. We feel that this combination will prove to be very effective and reach out to all types of learners.
Our first learning technique for our strategy is a memorable video. For this we chose clips from an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy that was focused on the brain. We knew we wanted in include a video in our strategy because it would be beneficial to visual and auditory learners. Videos have been used in classrooms for many years. They have many uses; they can be introductions to a new topic, a nice alternative to having a teacher just start a new lesson, help to expand the students knowledge (which can be useful when a teacher is absent from school), or demonstrate something that cannot be shown or done in a classroom. Choosing a Bill Nye video is a bonus because it is focused on teaching students and keeping it interesting so the people do not lose interest. Throughout the video there are many short clips that make us laugh while we watch it. They are not just added for fun though; they are full of information, but presented in a way that people want to watch. Due to this we think that the video will make for a very effective technique for teaching people neuroscience. (Danielle)
An important part of our learning strategy is a hand on model that the students could use. We will provide our learners with a model of the brain on a cake. This is a fun and enjoyable way to learn neuroscience. Each part of the brain will be labeled with the correct term. The learners will use this model to answer written scenario questions based on the brain. Once our learners have grasped each sections of the brain, we will allow them to eat a part of it as a reward. As we learned from our data, there are many kinesthetic learners that utilize hands on techniques to learn the most efficiently so it will be very effective. This is one of the best ways to learn neuroscience because many students learn by doing tasks hands on and through lab work. By putting a picture of the brain on a cake, it allows the students to learn in a new way that will be memorable and all of the information will be remembered without rote memorization. (Kelly)
Our third learning strategy is the case study and scenario questions and applications. Case studies are observational learning techniques in which a person or situation is studied in depth in hopes to reveal larger understandings of the material. For this learning strategy, students will be given scenarios and follow up questions that help apply base knowledge to real life situations. The scenario will be based off the information and topic of interest. By applying knowledge, one can grasp a better understanding for a given topic. Students will be able to explore functions of the brain and how this information can be applied to everyday life. This learning strategy is effective because it has the student involved in a possible real world situation. The student must think critically about concepts rather than regurgitate back information. This will allow students to think further into depth about the material. In addition, if the students can answer these questions on their own without any notes, then they can be more confident about having a grasp on the material. (Sarah)
Finally, our fourth learning technique is small group discussions and debatable topics. The process included the students splitting up into small groups of three to five people. They will discuss conceptual questions that they were struggling to understand. As a group, they could help everyone understand the material and explain the information to each other. The students were also provided with debatable topics to converse about. We found this technique to be pretty effective because when a student explains a concept to another student, they tend to remember and understand the concept better which will help them with the neuroscience unit. Also, a student may explain the concept in a different way than somebody else, which will also help the concept understandable for the other student. (Briana)
Our learners that have experienced our test run on the above learning strategies included a 15 year old female, a 13 year old male, and an 18 year old male; along with the four of our group members. We felt that these ages were appropriate for the topic that was being learned and that they would be representative of a different people.
The following three links are to the video clip that we chose to use for our first technique; it is one continuous video just broken into three different parts; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx4HdbTiksY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwvOxmzRlE&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwszNJHzFac&NR=1 . Our learning methods were a great way to introduce people to the brain and its functions. The video, cake, case studies, and discussion questions made the topic very approachable and easy to grasp the main ideas. The funny and silly parts of the video portion of our method helped the people who watched the video remember the information better because their mind associated that topic to the clip then remembered all the information that went along with it. The video was not just people talking and listing information and facts; there were diagrams, models, and real brains for the people to see, which helped to give them a better insight on the brain and in turn neuroscience as a whole. Also, there were real life examples throughout our learning method, this allowed our students to relate to it and make connections to their own life. This makes it easier for the people to understand the concepts more in depth and not just memorize the definitions. After running through the only ineffective thing with the video was that it only provided a vague description of the brain and its functions. While it was a great way to explain the general idea of the information, to efficiently cover neuroscience it needs something additional to fully explain the concepts. After the movie it would be beneficial for the teacher to go over some of the information. For example, in the video Bill Nye talked about messages running through the brain, so if the teacher would talk more about neural impulses after the video the students would have a much easier time understanding it because they already have a base understanding from the video. For the cake portion of the learning strategy, making the picture more in depth could modify it. There could be more sections within the four lobes of the brain, which would create more questions. Having more scenarios for the students to analyze could modify the case study. Also, the scenarios could be more detailed and go even further into detail. A way to modify the discussion question portion of our learning strategy would be to provide the learners with a chart on positive self talk so that the students can both effectively and respectfully debate the topics. By doing so, our learners will find it easier to learn the information in a more respectful environment.
We used learning, thinking, memory, and language effectively in our strategy. Learning was used because we had case studies to test what the students learned by letting them apply their knowledge to real life situations. Language was used effectively because for our discussion of our debatable topics different students can explain information differently than others so it may give other students a better understanding of it. The cake helped visually where each lobe was in the brain and what they each did to make it more memorable rather than just memorizing it. The students had to think critically about the debatable topics and deeply ponder about the discussion questions so they could create a well developed argument.
The concepts of learning, thinking, memory, and language are crucial to our understanding of neuroscience because it helps us understand how the brain works in order to teach our students. By us knowing how the brain works and processes information it can show us how students learn and the best way for us to learn and teach neuroscience. Doing the survey and all this information on learning helped us realize what kind of learners we are. In other classes we can utilize the methods that we learned with the best one for us so that we can learn the most effectively. For other aspects in psychology we can look at videos that help to further explain the information, come up with models, create real life scenarios, and respectfully debate with others.
Our learning strategy is a great way for all types of individuals to learn. We made sure that, once put together, our techniques would be able to reach out to all people. The video was a good way to begin because it allowed us to introduce the topic in a fun and memorable way. The students could listen to the information, while watching the video; which included many demonstrations. This really allowed almost all types of learners to grasp the main ideas of the brain. Once this was done we went into the cake diagram, which the students could get up close to and study to get a better idea of the parts of the brain and what they do. This was very helpful for visual and kinesthetic learners. Following this up with the worksheet was very effective because it helped to summarize major points and allowed the students to answer questions to use and reinforce their knowledge. The case studies were a great way to reinforce the concepts that the students were being taught. It forced them to critically think about neuroscience and be able to apply their knowledge. No matter how the student learns recalling and applying the information throughout this technique helps to reinforce the ideas and concepts in their mind. Finally, by ending our strategy with the group discussion and debate, we are forcing the student to again recall and think about the information. It is also a good way to wrap up all the information that has been taught and work to clarify any topics that anyone is still confused on. Overall we have created a very strong learning strategy that will be able to be utilized by all types of learners.
The following are the worksheets and questions that went along with the learning strategies. For the brain diagram on the cake there were labeled flags to identify the parts. Along with this was a list of the functions of the brain and what they do, which included; frontal lobe: personality, ability to judge, plan, speaking, muscle movements, reasoning, emotions, problem solving*Damage to this area will cause someone to not be able to concentrate, they will have lack of inhibition, and behavior disorders are possible, Temporal Lobe: auditory areas, memory, expressed behavior*Damage to this area will cause hearing deficits and childish behavior, Parietal Lobe: processes body sensations, body orientation*Damage to this area will cause the inability to write and recognize self
Occipital Lobe: visual areas*Damage to this area will cause loss of vision in the opposite field. Along with this were a few scenarios: If someone loss their hearing what lobe would be damaged? Someone was in a car crash and now they are having behavioral disorders. What part of the brain was damaged? What part of the brain would be damaged if someone was blind? Someone got hit in the head when playing baseball and now they are having difficulty writing in school. What part of the brain was damaged? What part of the brain would be damaged if someone was not able to recognize their self? For the case studies the worksheet included the following: After students have learned a base knowledge, they are to apply what they know to these situations. They will evaluate the situations and answer accordingly. The first is: Johnny got into a car accident and badly injured his head. It has not been declared which part of the brain he has damaged yet. You are curious to know what kind of damage he may face. Determine what injuries he may suffer from based on the part of the brain he may have injured: 1.Amygdala 2.Hippocampus 3.Corpus callosum 4.Thalamus 5.Hypothalamus 6.Pituitary 7.Reticular formation 8.Medulla 9.Spinal Chord 10.Cerebellum 11.Cerebral cortex. The second is: Tracy is about to go into surgery on her brain. You are unaware of her symptoms, but are curious to know what part of the brain the doctor will be cutting into. What part of the brain will the surgeon have to focus on if she was experiencing: 1.Calmness rather than hostility in a person 2.Inability for adaption 3.Movements become jerky 4.An increase in the desire of sexual behavior 5.A disconnect in actions and purpose 6.Loss of taste. For the group discussion and debate, once the students talked about the topics they were confused on they will have a list of five questions to debate. The topics are: 1.Do neurons and brain areas have specific functions or is it fairly undifferentiated, working more as a cumulative field? 2. Is the mind completely "created" by the brain? 3. Is there a soul that exists outside of the neurons? 4. Can consciousness be reduced to neurons? 5. Base on the previous questions, are mind (cognition or behavior) and brain separate or unified things? 
