6 Investigations: How does learning happen? (Based on Brain Rules!)

During the first week of school, before I start digging into inquiry, I like to illuminate how I use brain research in my teaching-- no matter what content or process is. The easiest way to show students the rationale behind everything from homework to dancing about chromosomes is to prove it to them.

John Medina wrote a book entitled "Brain Rules" that serves as the basis for this series of investigations. Within each investigation, we explore the inquiry process, look at data from Medina's website, watch videos that explain the point, and more.

On the top of each lab worksheet, the rules for the teacher are present; materials follow (from math problems to pictures).

For the rest of the year, we study how the brain works and refer back to the rules for justification of what we're doing. Students have also taken the rules to heart and have created their own experiments, tracking their sleep or exercise and academic success over the course of the year, for instance.

Kid friendly objective: I will investigate and reflect on the Brain Rules of exercise, survival, repeat to remember, stress & attention, sensory integration, vision and exploration. Using these experiences, I will be able to explain why my teachers teach the way they do, and create personal goals to help myself grow myelin and learn more efficiently.

Key words: experimental design, control variables, independent and dependent variables, data, conclusion, results, reflection