Left brain, right brain dominance and auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learner ~ how will knowing about this help me learn this year? Just ask fifth grade students in Mrs. Ellie Lochhead’s and Mrs. Melissa Fuller’s classrooms at Lake Spokane Elementary School. For the first few weeks of school, the students learned about the brain and their own personal learning styles. Mrs. Fuller and Mrs. Lochhead have spent six years developing and refining this unit to not only teach science, but to assist their students in understanding how they learn. “We want our students to have a basic knowledge about both the physical parts that make all human brains similar, as well as the various learning styles, ways of being smart, interests, experience, and memories that make each of us unique,” explained Mrs. Fuller.

To begin, the students first learned about the hemispheres of the human brain. Students learned that the right hemisphere is responsible for “seeing the whole picture,” while the left “processes information in parts and in order.” To make this information personal, the students took a right brain/left brain dominance quiz. One young lady had “seven right and three left. I’m right brain dominate, more creative and open ended.” Another student found that he was, “right in the middle,” with equal answers for both the right and left brain dominance.

From there the students learned about the sections of the brain and what they did from both the interior and exterior views. “I liked learning about the brain parts, the four Lobes ~ Parietal, Occipital, Frontal, and Temporal because I never learned about the brain before. It’s interesting to learn about what they do and how they work,” reported one student. Another agreed, “I liked learning about the parts of the brain, that the Hippocampus is the part for memory.” Another fifth grader explained how the Corpus Callosum works, “I think of it like a big telephone wire through the middle of the brain. It lets the two hemispheres talk.” One young lady had another point of view, “I liked learning about the parts of the brain and how the scientists figured it out, what the different parts are and how they work. They couldn’t just cut into someone’s brain to see it in action...that would hurt!” In all, the fifth grades learned the names of over 20 “brain parts” and how they work.

Learning styles were then explored. The fifth graders learned that auditory learners do well with verbal instructions, while a visual learner relies more on printed information. Kinesthetic learners learn best when they can “touch and do.” Again, this information was personalized. A Learning Style Survey was completed. One student found that he learns best kinesthetically, “I learn better by doing physical activities,” he explained So did another fifth grader, who stated, “I don’t like long, verbal instructions. I just want to get right into it.” On the contrary, one student stated, “I’m an auditory learner. It’s more effective when I listen.”

A Multiple Intelligence Survey was taken to show the students that while they may show certain tendencies, all parts of their brains do contribute to learning. Through the survey, the students responded to statements in eight sections that corresponded to eight areas of intelligence. A bar graph was completed to visually illustrate that everyone has all these areas, but some come more naturally, and others require additional effort.

Through this initial learning unit, these students have gained knowledge about the human brain. More importantly, they now have a personalized viewpoint which makes that subject matter meaningful. As a fifth grader explained, “It gives the techniques of learning so we can figure out how we learn.”