Endless Possibilities

So this is the official end of my genius hour project. To wrap up my experience, I will answer five questions.

My favorite part about the topic I chose was learning about society on a scientific side and seeing what we can and can't change because of how the brain works.

I didn't really have least favorite part about learning about my topic. I was intrigued throughout my month of research and I plan to do more of it.

The thing I like most about doing the actual research is that there are endless possibilities to what you could find. One thing leads to another and before you know it you've spent six hours researching that very thing. The best part is that it doesn't feel like a chore. It's all about voluntarily feeding yourself knowledge.

My least favorite part about research is that you don't always find what you would like to see. I was very shocked at some of the information I found, but you have to have the good with the bad.

The most important thing I learned is that we ultimately have the power to choose what we want to become. What better person than yourself?

Genius Hour was overall a great experience. The best thing is that I don't have to stop because the project is due. I can keep going and going and going. I can delve deeper into this topic or explore into new ones. I have the power to learn whatever I want to.

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith

How the Brain Affects Our Emotions

This week I studied the relationship between the brain and ones emotions. These were my findings:

Last week I mentioned synapses and how they send neurotransmitters throughout the brain. Some neurotransmitters are dopamine, a transmitter that causes happy feelings, and norepinephrine, a transmitter that regulates stress and anxiety. A lack of these neurotransmitters can cause negative feelings.

Obviously there's more emotions than happiness and anxiousness. In Charles Darwin's publishing of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, he established that emotions such as love, lust, and fear are a natural and necessary part of evolution. In my Emotions Before Thought blog post, I talked about how we are unconsciously taught to fear and appreciate things. The brain automatically creates a stimuli to the things we were taught to fear and love and uses said emotions so your body acts accordingly. This is similar to the fight-or-flight phase your body takes on when a stressful situation presents itself.

There is also a part of the the brain called the limbic system, more commonly known as the emotional brain. It mainly consists of the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and the amygdala. This part of the brain is mainly responsible for regulating emotions as well. In the end, emotions are the brain's way to carry out homeostasis and make sure are bodies are functioning well.

Throughout my studies I continually learn how great and complex the brain is. This week I will study memories with the help of my friend who is specifically studying that topic.

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith

The True Start of Intellectual Wonder

This week my research consisted of when and why we ask questions. This is what I discovered:

Humans start asking questions as early as 10 months old. However, it is more with body language. We verbally start asking questions between two to three years of age. The questions progress from simple "what" questions to "why" and "how" questions at the age of four. This suggests that we develop an intellectual wonder at quite an early age. But we ask the questions about society and the world itself at the onset of adolescence.

Adolescence is the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, and it is both a physical and mental process to undergo. During adolescence, the brain develops many more synapses, which are a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter. When they develop, they are wrapped in a fiber that allows impulses to travel at greater speeds. In other words, it is the start of true intellectual wonder about society and the world around us. With this and our changing environment that teens live in, it is a nurturing time and place to allow intellectual questions to flourish.

Trillions of synapses are located throughout the brain.

This next week I am going to study emotions and how the brain controls them. More interesting things to come!

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith

Emotions Before Thought

After my epiphany while watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I decided to start my studies on how the brain is as a newborn, when the brain is the most uninfluenced. These were my findings.

The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that deals with thought and voluntary behavior. As a newborn, they understand emotions faster than words. So if a baby were to do something a parent wouldn't approve of and be chastised, the baby would pick up on the negative tone of the correction rather than the actual words they would say. This ties back to my social acceptance theory. We as humans pick up the vibe that others emit before we think about the actual words that were said to us. Because of our desire to belong, we naturally react to get the good feeling from others that we want rather than thinking for ourselves.

To further my studies, I will continue my research on when and why we begin to question things. Learning about the brain and connecting it to our lives gives so much insight as to why things happen, and I really enjoy doing my studies.

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith

We Are Taught Everything

While watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I was thinking about how wrong it was to treat any human being in such a way, as anyone in this modern day would. Then this thought occurred to me: it is only wrong to me because I was taught that it was wrong.

Now in school students are taught that the Holocaust was a horrific event in time and people should never be treated so poorly, to say the least. But it was quite the opposite during World War II. This is shown during the movie when Gretel, a 12 year old daughter of a Nazi soldier, was given a tutor. This tutor taught her that Jewish people are "evil, dangerous vermin," and people are fighting in this war to take them out and make the world a better place. She then replaces the dolls in her room with pro-Nazi soldier posters and begins to educate herself about the war. Her eight year old brother, Bruno, has not been taught to develop this notion yet, seeing nothing wrong with the Jews. He only sees them as farmers in striped pajamas, and he even befriends one in a concentration camp. The question is: why are we taught to develop such notions?

It all comes down to a point of social acceptance. It wouldn't be socially acceptable for me to glamorize the Holocaust, nor would it be acceptable for someone living then to speak out against the killing of the Jews. Most have a desire to fit in, so most conform to the "normal" standard of living. It is only when a group of people who decide to create a new normal that society changes what is acceptable.

This is only a theory, however. It has shown me where to start my studies of the human brain and how it affects our everyday lives, and I'm exited for where it will take me.

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith

New Adventures

This is a blog for my English I class. We are currently doing a project called Genius Hour where we get to study whatever our hearts desire. I am studying the human brain and how it affects our every day lives, and I will update my findings weekly. Should be fun!

Factual Faith