Exploring the Left and Right Sides of the Brain

Kathleen Hall                  Goethe School
                               2236 N. Rockwell
                               Chicago IL 60647
                               (312) 534-4135

Objectives:

     This lesson is designed for use with 5th-8th graders.  The purpose of the 
lesson is to have students become familiar with the left and right hemispheres 
of the human brain and to engage in activities that activate powers that are 
dominant in each hemisphere.  This lesson could be used as a culminating 
activity after a unit on the brain. 

Materials Needed:

* Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, Chapter 1-4 for 
  teacher reference        
* model of brain (if available) 
  For each student:
* Any logic activity (I used AIMS Logic Activity "Who's Who on the Baseball 
  Team?" from AIMS Newsletter July/August 1993)
* Copies of an optical illusion (I used "Old Lady, Young Lady")
* Copies of Cartoon of dog, from Your Body kit, (Lucas Manufacturing Company) 
  pg.35, or any line drawing that has recognizable objects (e.g., people, 
  houses, etc.)  
* drawing paper and pencils 

Background Information:

     During the 1960's, doctors discovered through working with patients that 
had severe epileptic seizures that each hemisphere of the brain processes 
information differently.  Through a series of tests they concluded that both 
hemispheres use high-level cognitive modes, which although different, involve 
thinking, reasoning, and complex mental functioning.  The left hemisphere is 
dominant in verbal, analytic, abstract and logical activities.  The right 
hemisphere is dominant in nonverbal, analogic, nontemporal, intuitive, and 
spatial activities.  (Refer to page 40 in Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain.  Note differences in language domain in the left side and spatial 
domain on right side.) 

Strategy:
 
1. Work with a partner to do "Who's Who on the Baseball Team?"  Teacher should 
   coach students to follow directions in a sequential manner.  Model by doing 
   the first two items with students.
2. When students are finished, go over the answers and discuss how they reached 
   their conclusions.  Lead them to understand that the logical thinking they 
   engaged in was based on putting information in order or in sequence.
3. Teacher explains the theory of the brain's left and right hemispheres.  (See 
   Background Information.)
4. Give students directions to make a face-vase drawing:
     a) Draw a profile of a person's head on the upper left side of the paper, 
        having the profile face towards the center of the paper.  (Left-handed 
        students should start on the right side of paper).  Try to use your own 
        memorized symbols for a human profile.
     b) Draw horizontal lines on the top and bottom of your profile, forming 
        the top and bottom of the vase. 
     c) Go over your drawing of the first profile with your pencil, naming the 
        features to yourself as you go, i.e., forehead, nose, upper lip, lower 
        lip, chin, neck.  Repeat this step at least once.  This is a left-
        hemisphere task -- naming symbolic shapes.
     d) Starting at the right side of the horizontal line, (the left side for 
        left handers) draw a second profile facing the center of the paper.  The 
        second profile should be a reversal of the first in order to be 
        symmetrical.  You may experience a sense of mental conflict at some 
        point in the drawing of the second profile.  Observe this and observe 
        how you solve the problem.
5. Elicit discussion from the students about their experience in drawing the 
   profile/vase.  Lead them to understand that the first side of the profile was 
   done from memory and from naming the parts.  This is left-hemisphere mode.  
   To complete the drawing, students probably had to scan back and forth in the 
   space between the profiles, estimating angles, curves, inward-curving and 
   outward curving shapes, which now had become unnamed parts -- shapes of space 
   between the two profiles.  This is right-hemisphere mode -- thinking without 
   words.  
6. Distribute copies of a cartoon or simple drawing.  Have students first draw 
   the picture right-side up.  When they are finished, they should turn the 
   picture upside down and draw it again as they see it (i.e., upside down).  
   The purpose of drawing the picture upside down is to have them attempt to 
   draw without naming objects, but rather to employ the right hemisphere's 
   ability to analyze spatial relationships. 

Performance Assessment:

     When you're finished, have the students decide which of their drawings is 
better and which way of drawing (i.e., right side up, in which they use language 
to identify objects, or upside down, in which they analyze spatial 
relationships) enabled them to create a better drawing.  Lead the discussion in 
terms of right and left brain hemisphere modes of thinking.