Training minds to stretch and grow
During a person’s life, long-lasting functional changes in the brain occur when we learn new things or memorise new information. By completing challenges, students explore the functional changes in the brain that occur when learning. This is important for students as it increases their understanding of the learning process, increasing their resilience.
Year level
7-10
Duration
60 minutes
Type
In class activity
SEL Competencies
Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Learning intention
Students develop an understanding of the long-lasting functional changes in the brain that occur when we learn new things or memorise new information.
Key outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
the brain strengthens and grows with use
learning and practising challenging tasks helps the brain to form new connections and to grow.
Materials needed
Large tables for each Round Robin activity
1 x A3 piece of paper per group of three students
Box of pens
Post-it notes (one per student)
Mapped to
Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities
Personal and Social Capability:
Social awareness
Social management
Self-awareness
Self-management
Critical and Creative Thinking:
Inquiring
Generating
Activity 1
Content review: Parts of the brain
10 minutes
Divide the class into small groups.
Instruct students to use one piece of A3 paper and a box of coloured pens to draw and label the functions of the brain.
Ask students to share their drawings with the class.
Activity 2
Group work: Individual challenges
40 minutes
Divide the class into small equal-sized groups across six stations.
Place one of the following challenges (written on cards) on each table:
Say the days of the week backwards, then in alphabetical order.
Name two objects for each letter of your first name, then increase this to five objects, then seven.
What is the sum of your date of birth? Now calculate the sum of the date of birth of someone else in your group.
Name at least six (if not more) things you wear on your feet.
What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
Name one fruit/vegetable that is never frozen, canned or cooked.
Students rotate around each station, completing each task.
After they have completed all the tasks, students answer the following questions on paper or in their books (questions written on the whiteboard):
What did you learn?
What mistakes did you make?
Did you use your past experience to help you? If so, what was that experience?
What did you observe about your activity partners’ performance of the task?
Did they find the task easy?
Did they become frustrated?
Activity 3
Reflection: Reporting back
10 minutes
Students think about one of the following:
a mistake they made
something they learnt
something that surprised them.
They then write it on a Post-it note.
Students share their answer with a partner.
The teacher places the Post-it notes on a wall/whiteboard in the three categories defined above (so that all three ideas are in separate areas of the room).
Allow time for students to read other students’ responses.
Individual students volunteer to share their information as a whole class group.
