The Ask Academy (133)

The The Ask Academy team (#133) is from Rio Rancho. This year they've submitted a project titled Brain Stimulation.

Team Members

 * Kylie McGhee
 * Kayla Alarcon
 * Sarah Roy

Sponsoring Teacher

 * Ashley Ivins

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=133

Brian Stimulation

We are going to research how the neurons are affected by exercise and if it changes their behavior. This is important because previous research shows exercise helps people learn more efficiently by stimulating their brain. By looking at the neurons in the brain we can tell which part of the brain is being stimulated the most (Parietal Lobe, Frontal Lobe, Occipital Lobe, and Temporal Lobe). First, we will need to research the brain and how the neurons are effected before, during and after you exercise. We will then display this using Net Logo. In using this program, we hope to accurately display how different regions of the brain are affected and how neurons react to the exercise. We are going to use Net Logo to simulate how exercise effects brain stimulation.

Team Members:

Kylie McGhee Kayla Alarcon Sarah Roy

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=133

School: The Ask Academy Area of Science: Medicine and Health

Problem Definition:
Medicine and Health is a broad field of science. It covers everything from doctoring and dentists to studying and researching in a laboratory. Modern interpretations of the Medicine and Health theories have led scientific theorists to believe that because the brain is more active and has more blood pumping that you can learn more during and after exercising. In performing this project, our group is undertaking the research needed to display brain stimulation in a computer model. Our goal in this project is to help people understand and gain knowledge about how exercise affects the brain. This will help scientists in the future in a physical and educational environment. The computer will empower the computer to think in the same general manner a human brain does. We believe that computer stimulation is the most effective way possible to determine the best method for completing its function.

Problem Solution:
In our project the computer would be responsible for taking knowledge of the brain and presenting how the neurons are affected in an easy format.

Progress to Date:
Our group has been working with the program Net Logo to become more familiar with the procedure of creating a simulation. Janet Penvolpe has kindly assisted our group in this process of creating an interesting way of displaying brain stimulation on the database, Net Logo. In addition to this, we have been researching the brain and how the neurons are affected when you exercise.

Expected Results:
Once we are finished programming, researching, and refining the computer stimulation the final system, could set in stone, a path for the future. Our research could be used in advanced systems that could develop radical sciences for teaching and learning in the future. Using such information, many tasks could be accomplished and possibly help teach set a better method of teaching. This research could be implemented in many schools, teaching facilities or help with therapy. Such implementations would take input from the real world and logically decide what method of action would be the best to take, just as the players in the simulation described above take input from its simulated surroundings and determine the best route to success, and just as humans take input from their surroundings and formulate the best route to accomplish their goals. We expect our results to help others understand the brain and implement new and better teaching methods.

Citations:
Mk McGovern (Spring 2005). The Effects of Exercise on the Brain © by Serendip 1994-2011 - Last Modified: Monday, 25-Apr-2005 10:56:42 EDT Retrieved from: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web2/mmcgovern.html Renew Exercise © 2004 - The Franklin Institute Online - All rights reserved. http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html Physical exercise sharpens the brain, © 2000-2011 Harvard http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Physical_exercise_sharpens_the_brain.htm University. All rights reserved.

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/06/26/physical-exercise-and-brain-health/ By: Dr. Pascale Michelon Physical Exercise and Brain Health,© 2011 SharpBrains. All rights reserved. Jun 26, 2008

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/brainandex.html Exercise and the Brain: It Will Make you Want to Work Out Len Kravitz, Ph.D. 2011 (Len’s References: Field, T., Diego, M., and Sanders, C.E. (2001). Exercise is positively related to adolescents' relationships and academics. Adolescence, 36(141), 105-110. Hillman, C.H., Erickson, K.I, and Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 58-65. Kramer, A.F., Erickson, K.I., and Colcombe, J. (2006). Exercise, cognition, and the aging brain. Journal of Applied Physiology, 101, 1237-1242. Kravitz, L. (2007). The 25 most significant health benefits of physical activity and exercise. IDEA Fitness Journal, 4(9), 54-63. Sibley B.A. and Etnier J.L. (2003). The relationship between physical activity and cognition in children: a meta- analysis. Pediatric Exercise Science, 15:243-256. van Prag, H. (2009). Exercise and the brain: something to chew on. Trends in Neuroscience, 32(5), 283-290. Yaffe, K., Barnes, D., Nevitt, M., Lui, L.Y., and Covinsky, K. (2001). A prospective study of physical activity and cognitive decline in elderly women: women who walk. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(14), 1703-1708.)

http://www.neuroskills.com/pr-exercise.shtml (Exercise Has a More Powerful Impact on the Brain Than Previously Thought, © 2011 CNS. All rights reserved. CNS)

Team Members:

Kylie McGhee Kayla Alarcon Sarah Roy

Sponsoring Teacher: Ashley Ivins

Introduction
Hi,

My name is John-Mark Collins, a Computer Engineering student at UNM & a technical intern at Sandia National Labs. See the biography on my User Page. Should you need any more assistance or have any questions throughout this process, please do not hesitate to contact me at johnmark@unm.edu [mailto:johnmark@unm.edu]

Progress
With the face-to-face meetings coming up in a few weeks, you should have a concrete model to display for the judges, whether it is fully functioning or not. Do you know what you would like to model at this point? You could model the data that you find showing the correlation between brain activity and exercise. Examples could be to show a graphical display of the results as exercise increases or as the time after an exercise session increases. You could also model the direct effects on a 'virtual' neuron as exercise increases and decreases, showing increases and decreases in activity with various graphs or visual displays. Just things to think about. Have you 'set in stone' your path for the future? The study of the brain is a tough one, only because there is so much information out there. By focusing on the effects of exercise on the brain, you have done a good job of limiting that information to a specific group of studies, now figuring out how to decipher and display the results is the tricky part.

Mentors
It looks like you have a mentor assisting in your project goals, but feel free to direct any questions my way if necessary (see the email listed above).

Model
AS I mentioned above, finding a way to display the data that you have found is the tricky part. My understanding is that you want to display a computer simulation showing that an increase in exercise has a direct correlation to an increase in brain activity and an increase in the ability to 'learn'. The first thing to do is decide what you would like to model: the brain, brain activity, exercise, learning, etc... Then you need to find a way to tie them together visually - maybe graphs, an interactive interface, modeled animations of the increase in brain activity, etc.. I would suggest picking a few very important variables and try to model the data that you found in your references. Try to focus on a few key points and do not over-complicate your model.

This could be an incredibly interesting study and I am curious to see the results! Good luck!

Rubrics
The judges will use these rubrics to evaluate your projects. Use them as checklists for what you need to communicate to the judges.

Expo Judges Rubric