Let's re-center: back in assigned seats, reminder of expectations and class agreements.
Let's share ROSES
Calendar/Announcements:
-Notebooks due this Friday April 6th
-Tutorial Thursday & Friday this week
-End of Q3 is next week! (Thurs. April 12th)
-No school Friday April 13th
-Only about 8 weeks of school left this year...?!
Let's keep our eyes on the prize and focus as we move forward
Notebook Check In
Quarter 3 Notebook Contents:
-Semester 1 reflection
-American Eagle documentary worksheet
-Bald Eagle population graph
-Rachel Carson/DDT vocabulary terms
-Biography essay (environmentalist)
-Nature & the Brain
-Mindfulness & Meditation and the Brain
Heading: Nature and the Brain
Learning Objective: I can explore research on nature's effect on the human brain and think about how I can apply it to my own life.
Current research on how exposure to nature effects the human mind and body:
Stanford researchers find mental health prescription: Nature (w/video)
This Is Your Brain on Nature (w/video)
Big Ideas: (write this down!)
-More than 50% of world's population lives in urban areas
-City dwellers have 20% higher risk of anxiety, 40% higher risk of mood disorders
-Research has found less negative thought patterns in the brains of people exposed to nature
-Researchers found a lower incidence of 15 diseases in people who lived within about a half mile of green space.
-Exposure to nature can lower heart rate, slow breathing, decrease cortisol production
-Gives prefrontal cortex (brain's command center) a chance to rest
Let's go outside! You need your notebook and a writing utensil. No electronics outside please!
While outside you'll have the opportunity to tune into your senses and do some reflective journaling.
Heading: Mindfulness and Meditation - Effect on the Brain
Learning Objective: I can learn about mindfulness and meditation and how they effect the brain
mindfulness - a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Research:
Neuroscience of Mindfulness: What Happens to Your Brain When You Meditate
What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain?Mindfulness Can Literally Change Your Brain
Big Ideas (write these down!):
-Daily meditation for 8 weeks increased brain volume of study participants in the areas responsible for learning, emotional regulation, and empathy, and shrank the amygdala (fight or flight regulator)
-Expert meditators' brains are trained to default to the meditative state; permanent change in perception
-Meditation can relax you and regulate your emotions in the short term, but it can also change your brain permanently if you approach it as a form of mental exercise.
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