Post by Kadi Rae Smith, undergraduate in Psychology with a minor in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Kadi Rae is the Vice President of the PSU Neuroscience Club, and both they and their service dog Roadie are welcome and accomplished participants in Noggin outreach.
This spring I joined a very special outreach adventure, a collaboration between a rural community theater and our NW Noggin volunteers, through an amazing program called Kids Make Theatre.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR NORTH COAST VISIT: Brain Cells Dance
We were asked to help create an experience for youths ages six through 18 that incorporated acting and improvisational skills with educational neuroscience information. In other words, we needed to create a narrative for the brain that could be embodied by each up and coming thespian.
For this, we looked to neuroscientist, educator and author Dr. Richard Wingate, whose book The Story of the Brain in 10 ½ Cells laid the foundation for NW Noggin’s SECOND neuro-theater acting workshop (check out the first effort here: The Land of Cerebrum). With help from the team of professionals at Kids Make Theater, we decided to present participants with brain cells from which they could pick their favorite to embody and engage in improvisational exercises as their cellular character.
Benefits of Hands-On Learning →
Guided Hands-On Activities Can Improve Student Learning in a Qualitative Biomechanics Course
Improv and Divergent Thinking →
Improving Teenagers’ Divergent Thinking With Improvisational Theater
Neuroaesthetics (Brains on Art)→
Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics
As an artist, my first instinct was to make life-size visual representations of each cell detailed in Dr. Wingate’s book, characterizing them by intertwining their form with the actions that they perform in the brain. But first, we had to make a lesson plan!
Due to limited resources (and attention spans), my colleagues and I decided to focus the workshop on half of the cells that the book details, to ensure that the amount of information we brought would be feasible to learn over the course of our two hour sessions.
Grad student and improv actor, Julian Rodriguez and I set out to pinpoint which brain cells perform the greatest variety of activities, looking for nuances that our young actors could grab onto for character development. Since the neuro material was also new for the Kids Make Theatre team – the extraordinary Teaching Artists Lori Wilson Honl, Paige DeAlmeida and Sean Cooney – who provided the framework and support for our workshop, I created a booklet detailing the selected cells, with images so they could get a feel for each one. These served as the underpinning for participants to build their own characters out of, converting forms and functions of each cell into personality traits and back stories.
Improv and Character development →
Character-enabled improvisation and the new normal: A paradox perspective
Improv and Coping Skills →
Towards an Embodied Signature of Improvisation Skills
Cognitive Benefits of Acting →
Could Acting Training Improve Social Cognition and Emotional Control?
In order to make the detailed forms of the cells more tangible, Julian and I created hand-sized 3D models of the brain cells, made with wire and wrapped with pipe cleaners, that our aspiring actors could take inspiration from.
I also painted six foot versions of each cell that served as hubs for the actors-in-training to meet and workshop their characters.
The grand finale was a series of short scenes wherein our participants paired up, dressed in pipe cleaner costumery of their own making, and improved cellular interactions with each other based on what they had learned about their particular cell. This led to some amazingly creative interpretations of neuronal interplay and hilarious moments of pure comedy gold.
From the bossy astrocyte micromanaging its fellow cells to the timid leech neurons who stretched and danced betwixt their neuronal companions, each participant learned brain cell specs in intimate detail and excellently portrayed them through visual design and brilliant personification.
They created narratives that were later shared with friends and family, which we witnessed as their guardians joined us at the end of the workshop and were led from the pipe cleaner neuron design stations to the real human brain specimens that NW Noggin provides for participants.
Communal learning through skill shares, and both intergenerational and peer-to-peer knowledge building is at the heart of NW Noggin’s educational methods of building networks to foster deep self-motivated learning, fun and enduring curiosity.
Science of Empathy →
The Science of Empathy
Improv, Empathy and Embodiment Therapy →
Therapeutic Mask: An Intervention Tool for Psychodrama With Adolescents
Thank you Kids Make Theatre and my fellow Noggin volunteers!