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‘WoW’ Project – How Do Our Brains Grow?

Overview

In Term 1, the Kindergarten 2 children at MOE Kindergarten @ Punggol Green were introduced to various internal organs and their functions in the body as part of the topic “My Amazing Body”. They explored videos, the human body chart and information books like ‘Me and My Amazing Body’ by Joan Sweeney and ‘Look inside Your Body’ by Usborne during their HI-Light learning experiences. The K2 children in class Kind Kangaroos showed great enthusiasm about the brain and began asking questions relating to the growth of the brain. Based on the children’s interest, the class decided to find out more about how the brain works and grows as their ‘Weeks of Wonder’ (‘WoW’) Project.

Objectives

Through this ‘WoW’ project, children were given the opportunities to:

  • Find out how the brain grows from a variety of sources
  • Set small achievable goals to help their brain grow stronger

Phases of the 'WoW' Project

The ‘WoW’ Project takes place over three phases – I Wonder, I Find Out, and I Know.


I Wonder

In the ‘I Wonder’ phase, children would wonder what they would like to find out, identify the topic of investigation, and share what they already know about the topic. Based on children’s interest in the brain, the teacher facilitated a discussion to find out what children knew, what they wanted to know and how they would find out more about the topic. Children’s responses and ideas were recorded by the teacher in the K-W-H chart.


I Find Out

What do we Know?

What do we want to know?

How do we find out?

  • When you eat healthy food, your brain will be strong – Haziq

 

  • It will send message to you. – Kim

 

  • When you do your work, your brain can stretch. – Nur

 

  • When you learn new things, your brain can grow. - Jay

 

  • Why can’t we see our brain when it grows? – Lina


 

  • How many brains do I have when it grows? – Abb

 

  • Can our brain get smaller? – Zeph

 

  • How do our brains get smarter when it grows? – Fairah

 

  • How do our brains remember when it grows? – Chi

 

  • Can our brains get spoilt  by growing? - Aila

  • Go to (search) the Internet – Kif


 

  • Use drawings – Shiq


 

  • Youtube videos – Ming


 

  • Play games - Rish


In the ‘I Find Out’ phase, children discuss, plan, and carry out their investigations to find out the answers to their questions. For this project, the children carried out the investigations using the following two ways:


a.      Internet Search

As suggested by one of the children, Child A, the teacher searched the Internet and found information about how the brain grows. She shared the information with the children. Through the teacher’s sharing, here are some of the things that the children found out:

  • The brain would start growing when we were still in our mummies’ tummy.
  • At 29 days, the brain began to form.
  • The brain would continue to grow in size into adulthood until it filled up the space in the skull. 
The teacher also shared a video titled, ‘How to Grow My Brain?’ by Khan Academy.
Brain_1.png

After watching the video, the children found out that there were over 100 billion nerve cells or neurons that made up the brain. These nerve cells would make connections when we were learning a new skill or knowledge. When the brain was able to think faster, it showed that the brain was growing smarter.


b      Guest Speaker - Ms Karis (student doctor)

With the help of one of the teachers, the children were able to meet Ms Karis, a student doctor.  Ms Karis shared a lot of ways that the brain could grow!  The children also posed the questions they had about things that might affect the growth of the brain to Ms Karis.   They were excited to have their questions answered by a professions!  

Brain_2.png
The children found out from Ms Karis that our brains would grow smarter when more and more neurons made bonds with one another. When you learn new things, the tiny connections in the brain multiply and get stronger. The more that you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Therefore, the children played the game, ‘Neurons chains’ to explore this concept
Brain_3.png

The children would stand apart from one another like individual neurons. A ‘neuron leader’ would call out a number and the rest of the ‘neurons’ would hold hands to form chains according to the number called out.

 

Through this game, the children saw how their human chains grew longer and stronger as they connected with each other. This helped them to understand that the more connections there were in the brain, the stronger their brain was!


I Know

In the ‘I Know’ phase… the children consolidated their findings and made inferences from the KWHL chart through the various activities.


K-W-H-L Chart

What do we Know?

What do we want to know?

How do we find out?

What we have Learnt?

  • When you eat healthy food, your brain will be strong – Haziq

 

  • It will send message to you. – Kim

 

  • When you do your work, your brain can stretch. – Nur

 

  • When you learn new things, your brain can grow. - Jay

 

  • Why can’t we see our brain when it grows? – Lina

 

  • How many brains do I have when it grows? – Abb

 

  • Can our brain get smaller? – Zeph

 

  • How do our brains get smarter when it grows? – Fairah

 

  • How do our brains remember when it grows? – Chi

 

  • Can our brains get spoilt  by growing? - Aila

  • Go to (search) the Internet – Kif

 

  • Use drawings – Shiq

 

  • Youtube videos – Ming

 

  • Play games - Rish

  • The brain grows in size as we grow older.

 

  • The brain cannot grow larger than the skull.

 

  • The brain grows smarter and thinks faster when the neurons make connections with one another.

 

  • We need to try our best for the brain to make these connections.


Based on their earlier investigations, the children learnt that the brain could grow in two ways:


i.          Physically

            The brain grows in size as we grow older. However, the brain cannot grow bigger than the size of our skull.

ii.          Intellectually

            The brain grows smarter and thinks faster when the neurons make connections with one another. We need to keep on trying and do 

            our best at work for that to happen. 


With this new knowledge about neurons and the connections that they made in the brain, the children worked on an activity to reflect on what they have learnt.


Brain_4.png


The children decided to conclude their ‘WoW’ project by creating a vision board. They created a collage of their goals on the ways that they could help their brains grow smarter. The children placed the vision board up in class to look at it daily and commit to work towards the goals on it.


Brain_5.png


The exploration of the functions of the brain through the ‘WoW’ project enabled children to take charge of their own learning. As we nurture children to develop a growth mindset, they progressively make connections using their prior knowledge to persevere in their learning pursuit. As adults, we play a crucial role in igniting their curiousity and discovery of the world. 


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