Ed B.'s List: GW Health Unit

Risk taking and how the prefrontal corten is developed later in adolescents 

 YOUNG ADULT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTINTRODUCTIONABOUT THE PROJECTCHANGES INYOUNG ADULTHOODBRAIN CHANGESINDIVIDUALDIFFERENCESWAYS TO HELPREFERENCESCONTACT  © 2008 A. Rae Simpsonrsimpson@mit.edu
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SummaryA growing body of research knowledge is seeking to understand the unique strengths and vulnerabilities of young adulthood, including:
impressive achievement in education, innovation, community service, and social entrepreneurshiprapidly changing social patterns around relationships with parents; sexual practices; employment preferences; and marriage, family formation, and childrearingalarming rates of mental illness, suicide, binge drinking, school problems, and other risks

For many years it was thought that brain development was set at a fairly early age. By the time teen years were reached the brain was thought to be largely finished. However, scientists doing cutting-edge research using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, have mapped the brain from early childhood into adulthood and found data contrary to these beliefs. It now appears the brain continues to change into the early 20's with the frontal lobes, responsible for reasoning and problem solving, developing last

The following is an excerpt from Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A comprehensive guide to the new brain-based teaching (W.W. Norton) a book based on over 4,500 studies and with contributions from the world’s leaders in MBE Science.

"Knowing how something originated often is the best clue to how it works."-Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain (1997, p. 23)

Some questions have faced teachers for centuries. What is important to know? Who is prepared to teach? Who should be taught and how? Hints at answers to these questions can be found throughout history, and these answers point repeatedly to key concepts that are the cornerstones of the new science of teaching and learning.

The Science of the Teen Brain
Click on the links below to download and print articles, lessons, and student activities that give information about the science of the teen brain.

effects of drugs and alcohol on the adolescent Brain