Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 5, Neurobiology of Learning (7th – 8th)
Hello SAVY Families!
Happy Friday! I am writing this from the conclusion of the Neurobiology of Learning. I can’t believe how quickly this week went. Your students definitely made it a fun and fast-paced week! We spent our last day talking about cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. We talked about memory and learning and did an activity to test everyone’s short-term memory recall—the students all had different ways of remembering things in the exercise, and we discussed some tools to boost short-term memory with the exercise. We then talked about the differences between classical and operant conditioning, with some examples. Then we talked about human emotion and identifying emotions—if you haven’t seen Inside Out or the sequel, I think it would be a great follow-up for the students following our emotions lecture! Emotional intelligence is a very important tool that requires continuous growth, identification, and regulation, and I hope that the students take that information from today and continue to practice it.
After lunch, we started to discuss decision-making and bias, and we did an activity involving bias. Did you know that most people say they prefer Coca-Cola to Pepsi, but when you do a blind taste test, they can’t pick out which one is which and pick Pepsi as their favorite? It’s called the Pepsi Paradox! We ended the day with a Kahoot to wrap up everything that we learned during the week, and the students rocked it! They are coming home today with their model neurons, any worksheets they decided to keep, and advanced neuroscience knowledge that I hope will help them pick a rewarding career! I genuinely enjoyed having every single student in the class and I wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors!
Some ideas to ask your students about:
- Do you actually like Coke or Pepsi better? Why do people seem to like Coke better?
- What are some emotions that you are feeling right now?
- What is the difference between short- and long-term memory?
Thank you again for letting your students spend a week in the Neurobiology of Learning, and thank you to them for such a great course experience for myself and for our Classroom Assistant Jyden!
Laurel Bellocchio