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Mobile, Alabama, United States

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Grade School on iTunes U

For this blog post, I viewed videos by WGBH for grades 9-12. These videos were science videos. I viewed a video on Mirror Neurons and a video called What is a Planet. These videos were short and very interesting. I appreciate that none were longer than 10 minutes because I have Adult ADD and find it hard to concentrate.
In the video titled "What is a Planet" scientists explained why Pluto is not considered a planet. They used visual examples of planets and comets. The video was to the point and held valuable information.
In the video titled "Mirror Neurons" they explained what a mirror neuron was and why we use them. Mirror neurons are what makes us feel emotional and empathetic when viewing another person's actions. For example, when you are watching a movie and cry for the main character, it is because your mind empathizes with their facial cues and body language. The scientists on the video explained this. When you do and action and view an action, the same neurons fire off. They are on both sides of the brain and react to stored emotions. They hypothesize that people with autism may have a deficiency of mirror neurons.

If these videos extend to grammar function or literature, it would be a very useful tool in my classroom. I could use the videos as a warm up tool to get my students thinking about our topic for the day. I want to use reflection journals in my classroom and short videos could be used as topics for some of them. I am a visual learner and I remember examples like these videos helping me make vital connections.

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