K-16 Collaborations: Brain and Behavior

Brain Chemistry is both fascinating and frightening. Human behavior as reported on the nightly news drives us to invest in security systems. We can’t imagine how a person can torture a child for his own pleasure but his brain accommodates that act. We must learn more about the brain so as to prevent the horrific and/or ease the pain. As a scientist with a lab full of human subjects; I hope and pray that none there are or will become those reported on the news. Brain behavior is fascinating. I observe so MUCH each day and try to make sense of it all. I conduct experiments on a constant basis. I observe when students are trying to logically reason through a problem and analyze the variables that either help or hinder. I endeavor to note that information. I observe when I speak a certain way it has a dramatic effect on some and none on others. I am driven t explore and find out more. I record my observations and find that each class takes on a unique character and may respond very differently to the same stimulus. I am ecstatic when a pattern emerges and my practice becomes my life.

I feel that we tell stories all the time through our observations and how we evaluate what we have seen through others observations. We are constanly making observations that give us new stories. We use the stories that seem to make the most sense to us. As we make up our stories we try to gather as many observations as we can to make our story "less wrong".

W. Keith Sgrillo I like the "science as story telling" idea for several reasons. It gives me a tool to help accept changes in the world and in life. It also allows me to take parts of different people's stories that work for me and then to add my own observations to change the story to fit my needs. I feel that many of the stories that we accept as truth that come from others, we accept because of the convenience even when they make us uncomfortable. But having the conscious ability to recognize that we can change these stories using our own observations is extremely helpful. Stories are the mechanism of human culture. It is important that science be taught in this light because it is a "universal language" that can help us encourage students to explore and challenge their world.

In my opinion, science is a search for reasonable explanations to observable phenomena. Best explanations are founded on sound bodies of evidence and logical process. Others constantly test the explanations and may deliver one better. We use the best at the time for practical purposes. I tell my students that any one of them has the ability to find a better explanation as long as the evidence can be tested and survive. I would resist using the word “story” to my students. The word gives some suggestion of a lie. “This is my story and I’m sticking to it” is a favorite reason given by my students for some aberrant behavior. “Explanation” is a better word that I like to use because it conveys the idea that science is never finished and that we are all responsible for working at it. “Explanations” can be considered without first immediately thinking that this probably is a lie. Stories are often embellished to make them interesting. Though enjoyable, it’s not good science. Interesting stories are remembered over generations however whereas few people enjoy reading science. The merger of the two in education would be to wrap science content around an interesting story and have the students investigate to find the evidence and the embellishments.

Since I work in education I am similar to all of you other fine folks. I am different in that I never planned to teach so I was not watching my teachers with any attention to how they taught or what they did while teaching. Instead I was learning the material that was taught. Only later when I realized that I was teaching classmates in college, and being teaching assistant in grad school with office hours, did I finally start trying to recall what my excellent teachers did. I tried thinking of teachers who were not so excellent, but could not. Either I was really lucky in school or just oblivious. I am science oriented and often bother my family and friends in a science way when I ask for evidence or for "How do you know that to be so?" in most situations. I am skeptical of things instead of accepting without question, especially when I do not see a coherence or causal relationship. What makes me curious? I was lucky enough that the elementary school science curiosity that is so prevalent stuck with me. Those little kids are all scientists. Being a scientist now seems odd to some of my acquaintances and perhaps it is because they stopped their own science thinking some time ago. Regards,

My name is Angela Bryant. I have been a teacher for 10 years. I enjoy teaching High School students. I teach at Randolph Skill Center. I teach Computer Science and Math. I also teach at Community College of Philadelphia part time. I teach The Cisco Networking Academy. The Cisco Networking Acedemy is were students learn how to build and design Cisco networks. I have my CCNA (Cisco Certification Networking Asscoiate).