A Synapse Sunrise at Skyview High

Sixteen committed NW Noggin volunteers from Washington State University Vancouver and PSU made an early morning journey to the enormous (2300 student!) Skyview High School in Salmon Creek, Washington, just down the road from WSU-V…

IMG_5278

IMG_1493

IMG_5318

We were there to meet students in three, 10th grade biology classrooms, along with their teacher Angela Fojtik, and GEAR UP representative Melodie Alfaro.

Classes at Skyview begin at 7:30am, and one of the first points we made is that adolescent brains don’t typically benefit from lack of sleep!  (Neither do adult brains :).  But despite the early morning hour, students woke up quickly when we started talking cerebrums…

IMG_5294

IMG_1555

Our Noggin volunteers are here at Skyview for more than one day.  We’ve been meeting at the Chapel Pub in North Portland, planning a four session series of classes to introduce students to the brain…

image1

We started this week with a big bang introduction to the cerebrum, and plan to build through discussion of neurons and synapses, drug actions and effects, and large scale networks that carry out decision making, internal reflection, memory, and attention…

IMG_1611

On our last day we’ll bring along sheep brains for our students to dissect.

IMG_1570

IMG_1524

IMG_1521

But this week we met our high school students, and asked them what they already knew.

IMG_1610

This led to lively discussions about how we use only 10% of our brains (myth!), how each brain hemisphere controls movements on the opposite side of the body (true!), how you lose (and sometimes gain!) neurons throughout your life (true!), and other topics…

IMG_1549

IMG_1574

IMG_1552

IMG_5280

IMG_1651

IMG_1597

IMG_1619

IMG_1620

With three classes to work with, our Noggin students tried various approaches, in some cases asking students to act out the functions associated with various brain lobes.  This game of brain charades led to some creative performance, and enthusiastic guesswork…

IMG_1616

IMG_1633

IMG_1634

IMG_5305

In all three classes, Jeff Leake orchestrated an art project related to illustrating those cortical lobes and their functional associations…

IMG_1522

IMG_1624

IMG_5289

And on day one, everyone got the opportunity to examine brains up close, and ask questions.  One student expressed his strong interest in becoming a neurosurgeon, and everyone was asked to think about what they’d like to explore over the next few weeks…

IMG_1547

IMG_1518

IMG_1530

IMG_1566

IMG_1581

IMG_5292

IMG_1526

IMG_5300

IMG_5312

We also watched a short video (“The Unfixed Brain“) to introduce our students to what the human brain looks and feels like before it is immersed in formalin and “fixed” for preservation.  It is a lot softer, and more vulnerable…

We are looking forward to another early morning visit next week..!

IMG_1650

Some useful vocabulary for day one is available in the document below…

NOGGIN CLASS ONE

Comments are closed.