Game for Developing Left Brain AND Right Brain

I am very interested in the learning theories around the dominance of different hemispheres of the brain--the whole "left brain/right brain" business.  Both according to the test we've taken and just observation in our everyday lives, my son and I are both right-brained--intuitive, global, diffuse (some might say "scattered") thinkers.  My husband, on the other hand, is left-brained--sequential, narrowly-focused, organized, one-thing-at-a-time, logical thinker.

Of course, as the theories always say, no one (at least, no one without a brain injury or something) works out of just one half of the brain.  We all can access both parts of the brains when we need to, but for most of us, it is easier or more natural to operate from one hemisphere or the other--leading up to apply the wrong hemisphere thinking to some tasks, just because that mode of thinking feels more natural to us.

However, I just came across a game to help us with that.  The computer-based game Twinoo, by Dawn of Play, is a fast-paced game that requires you to draw on both sides of your brain.  On the left side of the screen, a simple math problem flashes up, and you only have a few seconds to choose which of the three possible answers is the correct one.  

Pretty easy so far, isn't it?

Except at the same time, a color mixing problem flashes up on the right side, and you have to select the correct answer for that one as well.  This time, your "equation" is a square of one color (red, say) and another square of a different color (for example, blue).  You have to decide which of the three squares of color below the problem is the right solution (in this case, purple).

That doesn't sound too bad either.  The thing is, the color equations usually aren't that clear cut.  So, for example, you will get an aqua square and a light yellow square, and you have to figure out which of the three shades of green below is the most likely for that combination.

Plus, the time is ticking down on both of them at the same time.  You go back and forth, answering both questions, until you've missed three on one side or the other.  Then the game is over.

The best I've been able to do is 21 correct on both sides, for a total score of 42.  I am finding that I am getting better, though...at least sometimes.  And it isn't consistent for me about which side I mess up on--the left brain side or the right brain side.

I will also say I don't think this is the greatest test for right brain dominance.  While I am right brained, I am not primarily a visual learner.  I haven't tried it with my son yet, who is very visual, but I suspect he would be much better at it than I am.  Of course, he is pretty much better than I am at all video games... he has those quick reflexes, if nothing else.

Anyway, it's a fun game to play for a bit, and I think it might just help develop both sides of your brain.  At least, it couldn't hurt!

You can play the game online here, or get it for $0.99 for the iPod or iPad at the Apple App Store or for Android devices at the App Store on Amazon.

Summer Reading Lists for Middle Schoolers

Summer is a great time to catch up on some of that good literature that we just never seem to get around to during the regular academic year.  So here are some links to books recommended to middle school, mostly by some different school systems:

The Kinkaid School Middle School Summer Reading Lists 2011

Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network Recommended Reading Lists 2011

2011 Parkway Summer Reading List for Students Entering Grades 6-9

I'm sure that there are others, but here are some to get you started.

Even if we don't read any of these books, I like to get an idea of what different school are advising for their middle school students.  Another way I use these lists is to pick up suggestions of historical fiction for the time period we will be studying in the coming academic year (in our case, 20th century history).  I like to have my son read at least one historical fiction of the time period, and this is a good way to find one that some other educators have found to be appropriate.

What Education is Supposed to Be About

It's getting to be that time of year when, whether you are student or teacher, homeschool or institutionalized school, we're all just ready for school to be over. ( Of course, most homeschoolers I know continue to homeschool over the summer as well, but usually in a more laid-back way, especially since most of the group classes, coops, and projects are suspended during the traditional school "summer vacation" period.)  It is not a season when most of us wax eloquently about the wonders of schools, especially these days when the end-of-the-year focus is so fixed on standardized tests and numerical quantifications of our students' performance.

So it was such a treat last night when, as I was reading Gary D. Schmidt's latest wonderful book, Okay For Now, when I came upon a beautiful passage that reminded me what education is really supposed to be about.

In this book, set in 1968, 8th grader Doug Swieteck (who also appeared in Schmidt's Newbery Honor award-winning book, The Wednesday Wars) is the sole transplant to a new junior high in a new town who is attending a pre-school orientation for new students.  Divided alphabetically, Swieteck is assigned to the principal's section, where he has to listen to rule after rule after rule of school regulations--being on time, boys keeping their hair short (1968, remember), girls keeping their skirts long, etc.  He acts up a bit and is excused to go to the bathroom.

On the way there, he overhears what the science teacher, Mr. Ferris, is tell the other group of incoming students.  Here is what Mr. Ferris tells them:

"Within a year, possibly by next fall," he was saying, "something that has never before been done, will be done.  NASA will be sending men to the moon.  Think of that.  Men who were once in classrooms like this one will leave their footprints on the lunar surface."  He paused.  I leaned in close against the wall so I could hear him.  "That is why you are sitting here tonight, and why you will be coming here in the months ahead.  You come to dream dream.  You come to build fantastic castles into the air.  And you come to learn how to build the foundations that make those castles real.  When the men who will command that mission were boys your age, no one knew that they would walk on another world someday.  No one knew.  But in a few months, that's what will happen.  So, twenty years from now, what will people say of you?  'No one knew then that this kid from Washington Irving Junior High School would grow up to do".....what?  What castle will you build?"

Thank you, Mr. Ferris, and thank you, Gary Schmidt, for reminding us all what it is that we teachers and students get to do together.

Multimedia Mind Mapping

One of my son's favorite organizational activities is mind mapping.  A mind map is a visual organizer that shows ideas, words, concepts, resources and their relationship to a central term, idea, or project.  He loves creating them, and as I stated in an earlier post, created a mind map of his own mind for me as a Mother's Day Present:

There is a new mind mapping tool that is out in beta right now, and it looks really interesting.  Whereas most mind mapping software deals just with text information, the new SpiderScribe program allows you to incorporate other types of data, including pictures, websites, Word documents or other files, a calendar, or even an interactive Google map.  Users can keep their maps private, or choose to share them with a select group who access it via a link you give them, or make it open to anyone on the Internet.  You can also control whether people can just see the mind map or if they can edit it as well.

SpiderScribe has only recently been released, so there may be some glitches and some support issues, and there are additional features that are already being requested.  But as our middle school students are being called upon to create more and more PowerPoints and other multimedia presentations, this may be a powerful way for them to brainstorm, work on group projects, and organized different types of resources on whatever topic they might be working on at the time.

Amococo: The Junction of Art, Math, Science, and Imagination

Once again this year, we are so lucky that Raleigh is hosting one of the luminaria by Architects of Air.  This is our second visit to a luminarium, and we have found it to be such a truly awe-inspiring experience that all I can say if one ever comes close to where you live, make sure you go see it.

The luminaria are vast, colorful walk-through labyrinths of intense color and pure light, all contained by the most gossamer of vinyl walls.  They are based on the technology of bouncy houses, but instead of creating a bouncy kid frenzy, they become fantasy mazes that are beautiful and meditative.  They are so inspired by Arabic architecture, so there are some tessellations and almost opt-art effects along with the almost psychedelic colored mazes.

Words totally don't do these exhibits justice, and even pictures can't really present the wonder-filled experience.  But here are some of my favorite pictures from the current Raleigh exhibit, which is called Amococo:

Is it science fiction?

Or following a white rabbit?

Maybe there will be a hobbit in the next section...

Optical illusions

Capturing the rainbow

Hope to see you at Amococo!

In Raleigh, the exhibit will run this today and tomorrow from 11-7 in conjunction with Artsplosure.  It costs $5 per person, but I think it is well worth the money...we spent an hour and a half there.  If you don't live by Raleigh, well, then I hope there will be one visiting a location by you soon.

Doodle 4 Google Contest Winner

Several months ago, I had a post about the contest that Google holds to have school-aged children design a Google Doodle.  The winner not only gets a $15,000 college scholarship, laptop, and digital drawing tablet, but he or she gets the winning design on the Google home page for a day (meaning it will be seen by millions of people).

Today is the day that they are displaying the winning design.  Here it is:

Doodle 4 Google 2011 Winning Design by Matteo Lopez

The winning artist is Matteo Lopez from Monte Verde Elementary School in South San Francisco, CA.  Matteo is only 7 years old--can you believe it?  It's kind of scary that a second grade student can already draw better already that I ever have been able to do.

Matteo is not the only one, though--check out this set of 2011 Regional Finalists, or this other set of 2011 State Finalists.  They are an incredibly talented and creative bunch of artists!

Matteo's entry, entitled Space Life, is his answer to the Google contest prompt of "What I would like to do someday...."  Matteo's response is: "is become an astronaut and explore space life.  I want to wear a space suit, fly in space, walk on the moon, and make friends with aliens in other planets."  That is a beautiful sentiment to go along with a beautiful picture.

There was a middle school student who was one of three National Finalists:  Justas Varpucanskis, a seventh grader from Mokena Junior High School in Mokena, Illinois.  Justas' picture, called The Majestic Sea, is a beautifully painted sea scene.  He writes about his dream that:

"What I'd like to do someday..." is to take part in the conservation of our underwater universe.  There is no doubt the last decades were an environmental catastrophe.  The underwater world is a have for many sea creatures, thus being crucial to our existence.  We need to preserve our underwater ecosystem.

Here is his fabulous piece of art:

2011 Doodle 4 Google Middle School National Finalist, Justin Varpucanskis

Congratulations to Matteo and Justin, the other two National Finalists, and all the other State and Regional winners.   Their artwork and their dreams are both inspiring.

Curriculum Resource: Freedom RIders Traveling Exhibit

This past Sunday I wrote a blog post about the new PBS series on the civil rights activists who took on the segregated travel policies in the 1960s by arranging black and white traveling partners on interstate buses to the Deep South, despite the physical violence and abusive arrests that occurred at many of the travel stops.  The show is supposed to be an inspiring account of people who put their lives on the line for our country to make progress towards the ideals about equality that are contained in our nation's founding documents.

I just found out that Raleigh is fortunate enough to be the next host of a traveling exhibit connected to the TV series.  From June 3-July 1, the Cameron Village Library will display the Freedom Riders Traveling Exhibit, created by the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.  The traveling display has photographs, newspaper clippings, and audiotaped interviews about the 1961 Freedom Riders.  This is a great opportunity to hear from the original Freedom Riders themselves, as well as to get a sense of the times.

Right now the exhibit is in Austin, TX, the tenth stop on the twenty-city tour.  After the exhibit in Raleigh, the show will travel on to:  Salt Lake City, UT; Lawrence, KA; San Francisco, CA; Tempe, AZ; Birmingham, AL; Seattle, WA; Detroit, MI; and Denver, CO.  If your city is not on the list, don't despair; there is also an online exhibit available on the Gilder Lehrman website.