Things we will address:• Nutrition• Sleep• Vision

• Stress• Exercise

Goals: Why should I care?• Take care of you –

take care of your students.

• Focus on raising kids – Effect: raise test

scores• Cutting edge

information and strategies

Our Brain Needs…1. Oxygen

2. Glucose

3. Water

Use of artificial neurotransmitters, i.e. caffeine, during the first twelve years may interfere with the nervous system’s ability to naturally make them for the rest of a person’s life!!

Brain Finding Imperative

...Refined Sugar, everything of food value has been removed except the carbohydrates-pure calories, without vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, enzymes or any of the other elements

that make up food

• Tell a relevant story• Show a relevant video• Do a relevant activity

Sleep IS Important!!

Sleep Findings

Stryker 2001

Recommendations:

Sleeping after learning grows TWICE as many neural dendrites as just learning the material

Average daily sleep needs:

Preschoolers3-5 years: 11-13 hours

1st - 8th Graders (5-12 years)9-11 hours

Adolescents &Teens8.5-9.5 hours

AdultsOn average: 7-9 hours

Sleep Patterns for the Adolescent Brain

> 50% of high school students in REM sleep after 3 minutes, should take 90 minutes to get there

Brown U. study

Video

From words to images

Stress

Exercise

Key Sources• www.brainrules.net• http://nerds.unl.edu/brain

Please tell us some of the recommendations you have

learned today. For more information, please contact:

Dr. Ron Bonnstetter rjb@unl.edu Kirsten Smith ksmith@lps.org Cindy Larson-Miller

clarson-miller@unl.edu Sara Yendra syendra2@unl.edu