September 17: Divided Brain and More

Class Activities:

1) Neuron Note. You wrote a new questions and you read the answers of last class' question. You also wrote 5 terms, concepts, people, studies, etc. that are still bugging you. You met with your neighbor and heard their explanation of the things that are still tricky for you. Now you know the areas you need to study and you know you can ask other student's about topics.

2) Hemisphere Dominance. We all use both sides of our brains ALWAYS! But looking at the separate abilities of each side, we understand the specialization of each hemisphere. Then we watched, "Scientific American Frontiers: Pieces of Mind" clip on Michael Gazzinaga's research with split brain patients. WOW!!!

3) "Make Up Your Mind" video. This is more "Scientific American Frontiers" where Alan Alda visits different researchers and shares some amazing findings. 1) Phineas Gage's skull and what we know 2) Children and their fragile memories 3) Moral and difficult decisions and the brain regions 4) Being blind and brain plasticity 5) Missing a brain hemisphere and living normally

Assignments:

1) Test on chapter 2 is on Tuesday!

2) Preparing for the Test Assignment. You can choose the from four options to identify parts of the brain and their functions -- write about how each part is involved in an activity you do, write a song about parts, write creatively a superhero story where one part grows and other shrink, or map the brain with markers on a swim cap.