very own mr. Ronnie she is one of our
school’s most beloved teachers and if
you ask any of her bio students they
will tell you they take the subject just
because of her you can find they’re
talking about almost anything from gene
technology to neuroplasticity but right
now she’s here the question to which
she’s here to question the extent to
which our experiences affect our
perception and our intelligence mr.
Ronnie it is amazing how my previous two
speakers talked about believing in
themselves what I’m going to speak today
will just reiterate your necessity to
believe in yourself I would like to
how many of you seated here can link
your disinterest to a subject to a
personal bad experience I can see
several hands and do you believe that
bad experiences can limit your learning
I get an affirmative to this I’ve been
pondering over these two questions on
and off for some thirty years
why thirty years and why specifically
these two questions to better understand
this I would like to take you back to
the year I was in grade six I had this
new math teacher who suddenly out of the
blues decided that she was going to
train our young minds to think fast
and her strategy for this was testing in
mental math and that to mental algebra
from my tune you can guess how that test
went I flunked I was a student who
always topped her class hooked up my
class
rather and to me failing was a big thing
but I did not allow it to get me down
because that’s typically me I would sulk
for a few days they’d get up that’s
myself and say hey enough of self-pity
much forward but in this particular
instance I found myself not only being
down and several years down the lane I
realized to a certain extent I had
allowed her to get me down
what exactly happened I distinctly
recall the harsh words to me she said it
still rings in my ears I do not know
what the fuss is all about you being the
most promising student of your class
went to me you’re just playing dumb
because he couldn’t do mental math is it
any wonder years later there are my
favorite subject is still not mad what
have I done I had allowed her disbelief
in me to translate into an effect in my
life in other words I had allowed her to
define and limit my intelligence did I
have a reason for loving her to limit my
intelligence but then I thought I did I
belong to that generation that thought
we
made this way I thought I had a genetic
predisposition big word to being dumped
in math um not being able to do very
well in math but knowing what I know now
I realize it’s not right I might have a
genetic predisposition but I’m not fated
to stay that way and why brings me close
to the subject that has always been my
passion human body and one organ in
particular that has never failed to
fascinate me
over the years the brain the brain is a
remarkable organ in the past 15 years
we’ve come to know more about the brain
than we have done in all of previous
history and much of which can be
attributed to the latest advancements in
technology such as MRI scans and what we
have done is made astounding discoveries
and one of them is what I’m going to
talk about that your brain is constantly
changing your brain is changing changing
in response to what response to the
input that you give it responds to your
emotions your learning experiences can I
have a glass of water and my mouth is
[Music]
your brain is constantly changing
in response to the input that you give
it in response to the experiences your
emotions your beliefs and most
importantly the learning experience and
the learning environment that you
provided with neuroscientists have a
great word for this it’s a buzz word for
them neuroplasticity neuro obviously
means the brain plastic are we talking
about plastic brains no what we are
talking about is the malleable brain or
the malleable ability of the brain so
what is malleability nothing but what I
just mentioned changeable nature of the
brain so what is actually happening when
I say the brain is malleable it is
changing it is changing how physically
chemically and functionable now to
better illustrate this I would like to
give you an example let us compare two
brains there are four dancers and a non
dancers if you look at the dancers brain
what is happening in hills of her brain
is there’s a system being created what
is a system new nerve cells are being
formed these nerve cells are actually
actually making connections with other
nerve cells which we call establishing
connections and these nerve cells are
also strengthening their connections
you don’t find this in a non dancers
brain so what did this dancer do
differently what he did was then he’d
hadn’t desire to do or quite an ability
he went forward with focus with the
determination concentration hard work
and constant practice he created that
system so what does it say about for us
what we need to do is the same thing
through wine our nerve cells with the
stimulating environment provide our
brain with a stimulating environment how
do we go about doing this provided with
the right learning experience when you
strengthen these connections for these
nerve cells what you have is long-term
memory when these connections are not
strengthened what you have a short-term
memory which are going to lose along the
way so what does memory brings me to
what is memory their memory is nothing
but your ability to retain and store
intelligence has anyone got an answer
okay
intelligence is the ability to retrieve
that information manipulated and used to
sort of solve your problems so he’s good
at math need not necessarily be that
he’s more intelligent than you it’s just
that he is able to retrieve that
information quickly enough and he’s able
to solve his problems quickly enough and
how does he do that because he has been
stimulating his brain with the right
kind of environment so memory and
intelligence actually two sides of the
same coin improve your memory improve
so we don’t have an excuse anymore
saying that we have a genetic
predisposition for just not doing well
in a particular thing you want it quite
an ability go ahead Nick why one so how
do I go around improving my memory and
then my intelligence first and foremost
what I need to remember is good news is
that our brains make physical changes
based on the repetative things we do and
the experiences we have so more
consistent and repetitive your learning
experiences better it is for the brain
so when you decide to acquire an ability
to all begins with your desire to
acquire an ability acquire if you want
acquire go ahead with focus
determination concentration hard work
and constant practice acquire it do not
ever ever give up bad news is that our
brains make physical changes based on
the reputa things that it does so do not
allow negative words negative thoughts
negative habits rob you of the pleasure
of learning and improving your
intelligence negative words is what I
did years after if I’m still not
interested in math it was because I
allowed these negative words to get to
me do not allow it you know much more
about the brain today than I did back
then negative thoughts I’m not good at
it I will never be good at it it’s just
negative habits I’m actually most
interested in this because what I’ve
seen or my almost 30 years of teaching
I’ve seen students go down this way
and I was
them that I’m addressing this more do
not spend quality productive time
aimlessly texting going to bed very late
your brain needs to rejuvenate just like
the rest of you give it the rest that it
requires do not allow such smoking do
not allow these habits to get to you
because they are toxins you’re basically
putting into your body into your brain
and your brain is getting affected by it
the next one is stay motivated with
positive action-oriented thoughts till
they become your mind set your default
mindset keep telling yourself you can do
it you will do it and you will achieve
it aim high we are the only
self-directed organisms on this planet
so aim high desire to achieve well and
do it challenge your brain this is the
most important thing challenge your
brain by constantly learning new facts
your brain works well when it’s
constantly challenged as one eminent
physicist put it do not curse you I’m
just paraphrasing what he said do not
press you the goals that you can easily
achieve rather work hard at pursuing
those that you can achieve only with the
greatest efforts his brain still evokes
a lot of interest amongst the
neuroscientists Nenana he is none other
than Albert Einstein having established
this that your brain and your
intelligence is not hardwired at any age
it is up to you and me to just sit up
and take responsibility for our brains
it is the new ANDed me to allow this
morphing ability all the changing
ability of the brain to work for us stop
giving excuses we don’t have excuses
anymore to conclude I would say we are
the architect of our own brains
so sculpt well thank you [Applause]