“If kids need to take a break or if they want to work and
ride a bike, they can do that,” Weinberger said. “There’s a ton of
research that correlates physical activity with brain development,
attention, focus, attendance, fewer behavior issues.”
Teaching kids how the brain works is central to the
school’s philosophy. Neuroscientists from Anschutz Medical Center
created experiments to sprinkle throughout the curriculum. Sukumar
Vijayaraghavan, director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the
University Colorado’s School of Medicine, pitched throwing a ball into a
basket. Then he said to put on prism goggles. Suddenly, you start
throwing the ball at an angle.
“But what you also learn is that while you keep doing that,
the brain will adapt and actually get you to the right place after a
few trials,” he says. “So the idea that the brain is plastic and the
brain can be trained to do stuff.”
When kids see that the brain can change and adapt it can be applied to learning challenges.
In this robotics room, students program Sphero robotic balls to move in different patterns.
Learning About The Mind
Kids in one classroom see how a brain wave controls the
body. Principal Weinberger and innovation teacher Anna Mills are hooked
up to electrodes attached to a Transcutaneous electrical nerve
stimulation machine. Mills thinks of lifting her arm. It lifts and in a
split second, electrical currents pass into Weinberger’s arm which lifts
automatically.
The students gasp.
“Does it hurt?” one student asked. “It doesn’t hurt, just feels a little funny,” Weinberger replied.
Just to make sure the adults weren’t tricking them, a
student comes up to lift up teacher Anna Mills’ arm. With no brain waves
passing electrical currents into Weinberger’s arm, his arm doesn’t
move. The students are astounded and discuss real-world applications
like prosthetic arms, driving a car, helping people with neurological
disorders, and virtual network interfaces.
In another classroom, students are about to study how
breathing and other sensory inputs affect the way the body responds to
stress. A boy dons some virtual reality glasses and takes a harrowing
roller coaster ride.
Kids cluster around him, iPads in hand, and measure his EKG
before, during and after the ride. Sixth-grader Logan Knod sees that
virtually reality “messes with your nervous system.”
Principal Weinberger believes understanding why and how
people react is also the first step toward building empathy. Innovation
teacher Anna Mills recalled one lesson where kids interviewed each other
about what they find stressful. A big one was not having anyone to sit
with during lunch, or play with during recess.
“The prototype that they came up with was a sensory buddy
bench,” Mills said. “So they had a piece of lavender [kids] could smell
and then a calming playlist to help the student feel less anxiety ...
they were taking issues that they see everyday that are really important
to them as a fifth- or sixth-grader.”
Sukumar Vijayaraghavan, of Anschutz’s Neuroscience Graduate
Program, said he’s hopeful longitudinal studies on the school might
reveal that that students have learned to demonstrate empathy for their
pre-teen classmates who may be struggling as they embark on a roller
coaster ride of new emotions.
“Looking at the mind as a product of something biological,
it helps to demystify this whole process, which is for kids, very
scary,” he said.
Seventh-grader Sydney Ahrens uses a game students developed to teach fourth graders about the parts of a neuron and how the brain communicates with the body.
Jenny Brundin/CPR News
A Different Kind Of School
The real fun – and learning – is in the daily innovation time.
Students pick a challenge and design something; a play, a
movie, a piece of art or an experiment. In two big makerspaces divided
by age, students can glue and paint and saw. They can also use 3D
printers, virtual reality and a laser cutter.
For seventh-grader Wesley Green, the chance be in a
makerspace, rather than trapped behind a desk, is a relief to both body
and mind.
“A lot of kids these days like to learn either digitally or
they like to move around when they learn so they like to learn more
physically, like hands on,” he said.
Even Kindergarteners, after reading the “Three Little
Pigs,” designed their own houses and “used a blow dryer to see which
design was the sturdiest,” Principal Weinberger said.
CU Neuroscience graduate student Jacki Essig said the
ultimate goal of incorporating neuroscience into a school is to get
students to think outside the box and practice critical and creative
thinking.
“It's really just getting students to think, not just
absorb information but to take that information and do something new
with it,” she said.
Essig and CU Anschutz professor Sukumar Vijayaraghavan
admit Soaring Heights makes them kind of jealous. They almost wish they
were back in grade school. There was nothing like this school back in
their day.
