Blog Post 1: Module 6

• This module describes the importance of brain research and how we can use the information we learn from the research to put it towards education. It also describes the brain activity in different stages of life and the overall structure of the brain and how they interact with each other. It talks about how overtime the brain develops neurons and creates many connections with eachother that flow throughout the different parts of the brain.

• To be honest most of the information in this module went right over my head. In some areas I had to re- read to fully understand the information. I am an Art education major so this is the first time I have taken a class that involves psychology. Since I have never learned anything like this, I thought it was all interesting. The thing that surprised me the most was that by the 20th week of fetal life billions of neurons have already been created. Also in just a few years, a toddler's brain has drastically changed. Another thing I thought was interesting is that there is a critical period during brain development where humans should live in a stimulating environment so that they are to their full potential. I feel like we should take more advatage of this window of opportunity. If this is during the first few years of a child's life, then maybe we should start education at this time. But how do we know when too much learning is too much?


• When talking about how every child at birth can learn any language, this made me think of my niece. My niece is about 18 months old and her father is American and her mother is Japanese. They both can speak English and Japanese so they are teaching their daughter both languages. I think this great because it is much easier learning the language at an earlier age than by starting in their adulthood.

• The picture describes the synaptic connections between neurons in different stages of childhood. At birth the neurons are starting to develop. By age 6 the neurons have made connections with each other that reflect the new skills that they have learned. By age 14 these connections have rewired into a more organized fashion so that responses to the skills become much faster.