I thought that I should share this with all of you:
At the start of the semester I put up a "parking lot" for your questions that you have and then, if you can believe it, I wasn't the greatest at making sure I answered all of your questions! I answered some individually or in replies to blog posts but not all at once and to everyone in a uniform way. So, better late then never---here we go! General Classroom Housekeeping items: I need to be better about how letting you all know how I would like things to be handed in. I initially thought I liked the folder system but it's really just too overwhelming for me to have to go through all of the folders for both classes at the same time. So, I'm going to stick with the old fashioned- hand it in to me directly way. In terms of notes when we're flipping, I would like to check them off on your Unit Objectives Sheet. Some folks have asked about how we can do notes faster. I'm assuming you're talking about when we do notes together. Honestly, this is the reason I like flipping because it really reduces the boredom of waiting on other people to finish copying things down. Brain Questions: In what section of our brain is our imagination? A big study was released this past September from Dartmouth on this very subject! Basically, there is no one place where creativity lies in our brain. This is interesting since the old idea was that the right side of the brain was the creative side and going as far as to say that left handed folks were more creative because they're "in their right minds". Even though left handed people are better than right handed people (trademark Clemens) we are not necessarily more creative, as we discussed in class. This is because creativity (and imagination) is found throughout our brain. How much can the brain take (in terms of stress) before you will die? Morbid much? It's a good question, though. We're going to watch a video when we get to Altered States of Consciousness where we will learn that lack of sleep can literally kill you. We talk about how Alzheimer's can kill you by damaging your brain cells---which can lead to other complications and eventual death. We've talked about how stress can kill you via physical means such as heart attack or stroke or slowly by deteriorating your overall health. This is where the mental you impacts the physical you. You can have a mental break because of too much stress---but does that kill you or do your actions you might take once you "lose it" cause your death. Basically, there is no real easy answer to this question. Our brains can take a lot but what they can't handle they pass along to the other parts of our body and that is often what kills us. What part of the brain is used for dreaming? Here's a great article that explains this very topic! It says that REM sleep (where we dream) begins in the pons area of the brain. Signals from the pons then go to the thalamus which sends them to the cerebral cortex which is "the outer layer of the brain that is responsible for learning, thinking, and organizing information". Teen Rates of "Clapping" I was asked if the rate of teen "clapping has been going up recently. According to research that came out a year ago this April, teenage "clapping" is on the decline! Evidently the media has been leading the public to believe that everyone is "clapping" up a storm but that is not the case. The percentage of teens who "clap" does increase as they age but the overall amount of the population who is engaging in "clapping" time is not increasing. Is fear real or based on an illusion----is it human created? Nice question! The short answer is that yes, fear is real and no it is not unique to humans. We need fear! Fear protects us from doing something that might hurt us and it makes us think about the potential results of our actions. According to this article, there are some fears that are "manufactured". The big five categories of fears are: extinction (death), mutilation (losing a body part or feeling if our body is being invaded), loss of autonomy (imprisonment, becoming paralyzed), separation (rejected, abandoned), and ego-death (humiliation). Is there a psychology that studies animal behavior?
Yup! It's called Comparative Psychology. Here's a whole bunch of articles from Science Daily on the topic! Enjoy! |