Approaches to Learning
Blame My Brain by Nicola Morgan
New scientific research points to real biological reasons behind the behaviour of teenagers - their mood swings, their risk-taking and difficulties with learning. As the mother and teacher of teenagers and also a writer for teenagers, Nicola Morgan brings an extremely interesting mixture of scientific knowledge which she has related to the social context of teenage behaviour. During the teenage years, the brain undergoes great changes, especially to the cortex and it is these changes that scientists believe that produce much of the erratic behaviour that teenagers are renowned for. Nicola Morgan discusses these and she has many suggestions which will help teenagers deal with powerful changing emotions, erratic sleep patterns, difficulties with learning, depression and other problems. There are a number of quizzes about aspects of personality and a very interesting discussion of the differences between girls and boys. This is an extremely informative and entertaining book. At times it is very funny and I think teenagers, parents and teachers will all find it very useful to help them understand why teenagers can behave so erratically at times. (11 years up)
• Know Your Brain: Feel It, Test It, Stretch It
In this book Nicola Morgan continues talking in a very conversational tone about the amazing qualities of the human brain and how it differs from animal brains. She talks about things we can do to make our brains even more brilliant and lists things that can damage our brains. She discusses in detail the different types of intelligences, how we can recognise where our skills lie. She also gives examples of people who did not do well at school or did not fit in well but were great success later in life. (Dr Seuss apparently was voted the student least likely to succeed.) She includes a number of quizzes and tests to discover the strengths and weaknesses of our brains and also training in remembering facts and in how to concentrate. There are also tests to find out which learning style is best suited for each person and then activities to develop these further. The tone is always conversational, the subject matter is informative, interesting and often humorous. This book will be extremely helpful for students interested in understanding how their brains work and how they can improve its capacity and performance. (11 years up)
Think of a Number by Johnny Ball
This is fascinating look at the world of numbers. Those students that love numbers will love it whereas others (like me) will get lost fairly quickly. However it covers a wide range of information about history of numbers, magic numbers, shapes and the world of maths in a very lively and inviting format and shows the amazing complexity of the world of numbers. There are many tricks and mazes and mathematical problems. (10 years up)
New scientific research points to real biological reasons behind the behaviour of teenagers - their mood swings, their risk-taking and difficulties with learning. As the mother and teacher of teenagers and also a writer for teenagers, Nicola Morgan brings an extremely interesting mixture of scientific knowledge which she has related to the social context of teenage behaviour. During the teenage years, the brain undergoes great changes, especially to the cortex and it is these changes that scientists believe that produce much of the erratic behaviour that teenagers are renowned for. Nicola Morgan discusses these and she has many suggestions which will help teenagers deal with powerful changing emotions, erratic sleep patterns, difficulties with learning, depression and other problems. There are a number of quizzes about aspects of personality and a very interesting discussion of the differences between girls and boys. This is an extremely informative and entertaining book. At times it is very funny and I think teenagers, parents and teachers will all find it very useful to help them understand why teenagers can behave so erratically at times. (11 years up)
• Know Your Brain: Feel It, Test It, Stretch It
In this book Nicola Morgan continues talking in a very conversational tone about the amazing qualities of the human brain and how it differs from animal brains. She talks about things we can do to make our brains even more brilliant and lists things that can damage our brains. She discusses in detail the different types of intelligences, how we can recognise where our skills lie. She also gives examples of people who did not do well at school or did not fit in well but were great success later in life. (Dr Seuss apparently was voted the student least likely to succeed.) She includes a number of quizzes and tests to discover the strengths and weaknesses of our brains and also training in remembering facts and in how to concentrate. There are also tests to find out which learning style is best suited for each person and then activities to develop these further. The tone is always conversational, the subject matter is informative, interesting and often humorous. This book will be extremely helpful for students interested in understanding how their brains work and how they can improve its capacity and performance. (11 years up)
Think of a Number by Johnny Ball
This is fascinating look at the world of numbers. Those students that love numbers will love it whereas others (like me) will get lost fairly quickly. However it covers a wide range of information about history of numbers, magic numbers, shapes and the world of maths in a very lively and inviting format and shows the amazing complexity of the world of numbers. There are many tricks and mazes and mathematical problems. (10 years up)