Strengthening Neural Networks

"The more one reads about brain research," wrote Pam Schiller, in Child Development: A Beginnings Workshop Book, "the more it becomes evident that the key to our intelligence is the recognition of patterns and relationships in all that we experience. Strengthening a child’s neural network then becomes a job of helping the child develop an awareness of patterns and relationships and helping him or her make connections between those patterns and relationships and all new information."

In the book, Cup (part of the new Reimagining Our Work series published by Exchange Press), the authors explain how a project that began with simple plastic cups helped children develop the awareness of patterns and relationships that Schiller describes above:

"The children’s voracious experimentation with cups afforded a natural exploration of mathematical and geometric concepts. The initial interest in simple single towers quickly evolved in to triangular configurations, and we wondered if this was driven by the children’s desire to create larger, taller, and more stable constructions. Coloured cups offered opportunities for sorting, matching, grouping and patterning. Colours [Note that the authors are from New Zealand, thus this spelling] were often classified; clumped together, layered, or arranged in algebraic patterns to make aesthetically pleasing colour schemes."

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