Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain With Music

1. Effective speaking techniques/Presentation Style

Because Booby does not talk in his talk, his presentation style is the most unique of all the Ted talks I have seen. He simply stands up and starts jumping around. As he is hopping across the stage, he hums notes in a rhythm the audience soon picks up on. He then just jumps from place to place, note to note, all the while, the audience is singing. Once they get the rhythm down, he adds in some other sounds and creates a song. I absolutely love the way Bobby interacts with the audience without even talking to them. He does not tell them a single thing to do, they just pick up on it and start humming. It is truly amazing to see the interaction with other adults and students there listening and singing with Bobby McFerrin.

2. Take-Aways/What Matters

I find this video very interesting just by the way that it is titled, ‘Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain with music.”This got me thinking. How can you hack someone’s brain? And how can you do music? Or anything for that matter. When I decided to do some research on it, I kept finding this thing called the pentatonic scale. What is that? According to an online dictionary, a pentatonic scale is “a gapped scale with five notes; usually the fourth and seventh notes of the diatonic scale are omitted.” Now that that is figured out, what does this have to do with Bobby McFerrin and his teaching style of music?  On one website a looked into, this person had some interesting things to say. “Having been a music teacher earlier in my life, I remember being taught that all children, in all cultures show this interesting phenomenon, of using the notes of pentatonic scale in their first songs. (For those of you unfamiliar with the pentatonic scale, think of a scale made up of only 5 notes and those notes being the same as the black keys on a piano). To demonstrate, remember being a child and teasing a friend by chanting something like “Johnny’s got a girl friend.” Do you hear a tune that you would have sung that to? Most of you will and it will be made up of the notes of the pentatonic scale. We all seem to be hard wired with this scale. I have no idea why, but find it fascinating.” I think for non-music people, this appears to be some sort of magic trick, while in reality it's really only the power of suggestion. When I think of this, I think back to the fact that we're so used to the "Do, Re, Mi" that it would be bizarre to expect someone to sing a different scale. I also believe that most people thought they were singing, because that's what they know. No one knows what a pentatonic scale is, but Bobby made it clear in his ‘talk’ when he added the fourth, distinguishing note. Then people changed and went with it. The audience and millions of people around the world are just following along by instinct.  This entails that the human brain instinctively knows the difference between the musical scales.  And that is a strange, but interesting concept.

Websites used for research:

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=pentatonic%20scale

http://www.nwcreations.com/http:/www.nwcreations.com/ted-talks-thursday-bobby-mcferrin-hacks-your-brain-with-music

Rachel Armstrong: Architecture That Repairs Itself?

1. Take-Aways

Armstrong believes that homes and cities should be built with nature in mind. She thinks that the homes should rely on the energy produced by nature and not stay hidden away from it. Homes should be built based upon natural resources that are provided by our Earth more than the man made stuff we use every single day of our lives. It is important to go back to the good natured sort of thing not rely so strongly solely on human technology. Yes, the human brain is beyond extraordinary, but when it takes away from the environment it needs in order to live, nothing is being accomplished. Nature is set in a very delicate balance between providing for the humans and animals and also providing for itself. It is imperative that we take the chance to develop houses and cities that agree with nature so that we stop destroying the only real home we have.

2. Effective speaking techniques

Armstrong speaks in a strong, empowering tone that makes me believe she really knows what she is talking about. At first, I thought it was really strange trying to make cities and houses agree with the environment, but now I understand that it really could be possible. Her tone of voice comes across as someone who knows exactly what they are talking about and that is someone who I would believe.

3. Presentation Style

Armstrong uses her arms a lot when she is talking about something she feels strongly about. She also has a clicker that she can click back a forth between pictures. These pictures aid in her presentation by giving a little more evidence to believe. She shows pictures of the old Victorian models, the way houses used to be build and why it worked. She then shows the flaw and how our new technology has assisted in new buildings and how they could possibly ‘rebuild’ themselves.

4. What Matters

So many green house gas emissions are being evaporated into our future and we speak, move and breathe. These are all affecting the human body as well as the environment in drastic ways. Plants are dying and decreasing drastically along with the endangerment and extinction of animals. What matters is that this is not going to happen overnight and definitely not by just one person. This will take a community of helping hands coming together with one goal in mind. They need to help change the Earth and the people in it one step at a time to creating brighter, bolder future. All of this is going to need to happen eventually, so why not get stated now? This will give everyone time to test the architecture and focus on what needs to be changed and redesigned to make the world a better place. Armstrong states that this needs to be taken only on a ‘case-by-case’ basis which means only the oldest, most rickety buildings are being put to the test now. With a little advancement in technology and some motivated speakers, though, this new technology could be put into not only the old buildings, but the new ones going up, as well.

Dave Eggers' Wish: Once Upon a School

1. Take-Aways

One thing that I thought was very important to take away from Dave Egger’s Ted Talk was that he believes one on one attention is a huge factor in the success rate of students and their grades. This is extremely important for kids to have in the classroom to open them up to new learning opportunities, both logical and creative.  At one point in the talk, he says that one on one, individual learning can benefit any student so much that it could even bring them up a whole grade level in a class. Not only are the grades important, but it shows the kids that they have the ability to learn for their own understanding and not just for the ‘A’ grade. This gives students the chance to learn for the benefit of learning and become successful later on in life because of their success rates now. It will give them the drive to strive and not just learn in school, but for the rest of their lives, and that is the true treasure.

2. Effective speaking techniques /Presentation Style

I absolutely love Dave Eggers' presentation style. He uses a lot of gestation throughout his speech to explain and emphasizes things he feels are most important. To make these stand out even more, Eggers adds in multiple photos of the people and places he has seen and been to that help the students with their homework. He seems to be very happy and d enjoys what he is talking about. He fully believes in what he is saying which makes it easy for me to believe him. He was just a complete joy to watch having fun up on stage. Having a light sense of humor is key when giving a speech because you want to keep the listener involved. He tends to acts surprised at some of what he talks about and is constantly asking himself rhetorical questions. I take pleasure in laughing along with Eggers while still understanding what he is saying at the same time. He also gets to points throughout his Ted Talk where he will talk really, really fast and then just laugh afterwards. Laughing keeps me intrigued because I constantly want to know what it is he is laughing about and why it is so funny. It is so clear that Dave Eggers LOVES what he is doing as an educator and helper to these young students.

4. What Matters

One thing that Eggers says that really got my attention was his 'domino effect.' He talks about a chain reaction that starts with just the little happiness a child gets from getting help with their homework (and the feeling of accomplishment when the homework is done). He says that happier students will make for happier families which leads to happy communities, then to happy cites, happy world, etc. Of course, when Eggers was talking about it, he meant it as a joke, but I like the sound of that idea. I think that the basis of a happy world really does rely on the happiness of the children and teenagers in it. With hormones going crazy during the teenage years, their attitudes have a ripple effect on the rest of their family. Then when the family gets together with other families in the neighborhood, the emotion spreads whether it is good or bad. After all, teenagers and children are the society of the world tomorrow, so they must have a huge effect on the people of today. Now, what matters is how we treat and teach these students in becoming better people. Dave Eggers talks about the first step being that adults and teachers need to pay more attention to the child's thoughts. He believes that students can do anything that they please when they set their mind to it and have a little help from an advisor. I love that he thinks kids are just as capable as adults in all ways. Most people have stereotyped teenagers by thinking they are always wrong, they don't know what they are doing, and that they just cannot handle things as well as adults can. Eggers thinks that teens can do it- as long as they have drive.  He says that students can develop something grand if they are just told what to do. In my life, I have to agree with that. It is not always easy to develop your own idea when millions and trillions are already out there. If a teacher would start out with a basic idea, the student could take it and make it bloom into something amazing.

Dean Ornish Says Your Genes Are Not Your Fate

1. Take-Aways

Human genes can not only be altered, but changed by people’s healthy eating habits and lifestyles. Not only can people change their genes, but they can also do it fast, which can be very accommodating to healthier, brighter futures. Dean Ornish states that “When you eat healthier, manage stress, exercise and love more, you brain actually gets more blood flow and more oxygen. But more than that, your brain gets measurably bigger.” When this blood flow is greater, a person can stay younger and healthier. They can also possibly prevent the development of prostate cancer and breast cancer. Studies are continued to be done and so far have found that people who make these life style changes have changed nearly 500 genes for the better.

2. Effective Speaking Techniques

Dean Ornish is very relaxed throughout his talk. He almost seems nervous a little bit because he kid of mumbles every once in a while and pauses constantly. He is a tad quite, which makes it hard to understand everything he is saying. His voice is very monotone throughout his speech and that makes it a little hard to stay in tuned to, even though the subject matter is quite interesting.

3. Presentation Style

Dean uses a lot of examples throughout his Ted Talk. He opens up with an example on how human genes can be altered through a study done by Craig Venter. He also uses the example that Robin Williams found out that many things can now be measured that couldn’t years ago. Studies that have been done assist Ornish in his idea that people can change their genes. In these studies, specific ideas are presented in the fact that he uses examples of foods that increase the production of cells in a person’s brain to make them age slower, and prevent their bodies from disease. He shows a picture to explain the significance of how these foods decrease the amount of fatty buildup[ in the arteries near the heart.

4. What Matters

Every day foods such as blueberries, chocolate, tea, stress management, some alcohol and canabanoids can cause the human brain to develop newer cells for the body, changing the genes. This creates a breakthrough in technology and studies done. Once before, genetic makeup was genetic makeup and it could not be changed. A person received their genes from their parents, who received them from their parents, and so on. Now we find that humans can change this, and change themselves. People have a say in who they get to be. Ornish states that these kinds of foods send more blood flow to your skin, henceforth making a person age less quickly. He also states that when the heart gets more blood flow, it reduces the risk of heart disease, or even reverses it. This is a step forward in creating healthier America. In this time and age, more and more Americans have become overweight and obese, that this study could change those statistics if people could just tweak their lifestyles and make healthier choices. We could come together as a healthier America, creating new jobs, and way of life.