Dr. Sam Wang Discusses “Your Child’s Brain” February 5
Rivers will welcome Princeton neuroscientist Sam Wang Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Campus Center for an informative and entertaining talk entitled “Welcome To Your Child’s Brain: How The Mind Grows From Conception To College.” Dr. Wang will discuss how parents and teachers can promote healthy development and learning in students by upending myths and misinformation with practical advice, surprising revelations, and the latest in brain-based research.
According to Division Heads Susie McGee and Patti Carbery, neuroscience already plays a key role in Rivers’ educational philosophy, and the list of examples of how neuroscience affects teaching in both the Middle and Upper Schools is extensive.
Teachers recognize the importance of relevance in learning and work to establish personal, natural connections to their material, through the use of story, metaphor, and peer teaching. Emotion is also key to learning so incorporating debates, role playing, simulations, service learning, and interviews can effectively draw students into the learning process.
There are social aspects to learning that can enhance the process. Group and partner work, peer reviews and critiques, labs, collaborative learning, and study groups are all tools that teachers work into their study plans. Because the brain needs time for reflection, various reflection strategies are used as part of routine assessments, or at key moments in the research process or during a major project. Likewise, there are well-established study strategies to reinforce long and short term memory.
In the Middle School, students are introduced to concepts of brain development as part of the leadership program at the start of each school year. Topics about the brain are then incorporated into weekly advisory meetings as well as in the eighth grade Media Literacy curriculum.
“We have been careful to avoid jumping on bandwagons and grabbing packaged ‘brain-based’ teaching fads,” said McGee, who has focused her attention on brain research for more than a decade. “We’ve determined what elements of the current research should get our attention and inform classroom practice.”
Over the past several years, the faculty has attended major retreats and workshops with experts in the field of brain research like Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. In addition, a number of department chairs and faculty members have participated in the annual Learning & The Brain Conference as well as other workshops focused on brain research. Discussions by the 21st Century Focus Group often include books teachers are reading on neuroscience and the implications of the latest research in the classroom.
Dr. Wang is a neuroscientist at Princeton University as well as a statistics expert, author, and parent. His laboratory work, which focuses on information processing in the brain, has shaped his insights into what goes on in a child’s mind—during infancy, in elementary school, and through the turbulent teen years. In his most recent book, Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College, Dr. Wang and co-author Sandra Aamodt discuss topics ranging from language acquisition to sleep problems, gender differences in the brain, and the importance of play in developing intellectual interests and self-control.
“We have been careful to avoid jumping on bandwagons and grabbing packaged ‘brain-based’ teaching fads,” said McGee, who has focused her attention on brain research for more than a decade. “We’ve determined what elements of the current research should get our attention and inform classroom practice.”
Over the past several years, the faculty has attended major retreats and workshops with experts in the field of brain research like Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. In addition, a number of department chairs and faculty members have participated in the annual Learning & The Brain Conference as well as other workshops focused on brain research. Discussions by the 21st Century Focus Group often include books teachers are reading on neuroscience and the implications of the latest research in the classroom.
Dr. Wang is a neuroscientist at Princeton University as well as a statistics expert, author, and parent. His laboratory work, which focuses on information processing in the brain, has shaped his insights into what goes on in a child’s mind—during infancy, in elementary school, and through the turbulent teen years. In his most recent book, Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College, Dr. Wang and co-author Sandra Aamodt discuss topics ranging from language acquisition to sleep problems, gender differences in the brain, and the importance of play in developing intellectual interests and self-control.
A previous book, Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive, was a best seller. His research has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, and the Fox News Channel, and he is the recipient of many honors, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a W. M. Keck Distinguished Young Scholar Award.
Dr. Wang’s books will both be available for purchase and signing after the talk on February 5.
© 2021 The Rivers School. All Rights Reserved
Rivers admits academically qualified students and does not discriminate against students or families on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnic or national origin in the administration of its educational programs, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic programs, and other school-administered programs.