The Brain

We had a very long week in YESS as we got started on our lessons on the brain. Our scholars were worried as they were met with many new, challenging words such as "amygdala" and "cerebellum." Since we need to build on this knowledge, we took it slowly to ensure all scholars were learning and understanding

Kiana and her mentee, Emily did an excellent job on the word sort!

 some of the basic brain structure. In order to help this process we have been playing a brain "word sort" game every day, twice a day, with some of our new vocabulary. At first, it took each table about five minutes and two or three tries before they had it right. By Friday, however, each table was able to complete the word sort correctly in less than a minute! I am very proud of the efforts our scholars are making as we work through this new material--this is new even for those who have been with YESS for the last three years, and everyone is doing an excellent job.


To help our understanding of the brain, we watched several videos and worked on filling out a diagram. We also heard the curious story of Phineas Gage, a man who, in 1848, suffered an accident and had a railroad spike go through his head. He lived to tell the tale, though his personality was forever altered. This is a great story as it really shows just how sensitive and specialized our brains are. It really helps our scholars to understand how localized functions are in the brain, and why!

Elisio and Nick get some help from my student assistant, Isai.

On Friday we had a small party in 5th and 7th hour as they were the "winners" of a team builder from the week prior that required the whole class to pass through a hula-hoop while sharing something private. These two classes were the largest of the day and yet managed to do this exercise in less than 1:30, showing great teamwork and community. Way to go!

Next week we will continue learning even more about the brain.

A great team build during 4th hour Fun Friday free time!