Our Brains

A meeting of minds

Philosophy Lesson (1 hour)

As a staring point we looked at how the brain is divided into the left and right hemispheres and how strong and weak connections are made between neurons.

The children then worked together to come up with a number of questions. They were told that they would have to later pick one as a focus of the discussion.

"How do you know how to know?"

"How does your brain work?"

"How big is your brain?"

"How do you get your brain?"

"Why do we have neurons?"

"How do you get your bones, because when you are a baby egg you are really tiny and you don't have any bones?"

"How did your brain begin?"

"How did our brains grow with us?"

"Where does the thing come from that holds the neurons together?"

"How did the neurons and dendrites get inside your head?"

"Who made our brains?"

"How did our brains get here?"

"How do the connections break?"

"How old is the brain?"

"Why do we think with our brains?"

"Why does your brain keep on thinking?"

The children chose: "Do neurons ever die?" (Kama),
as their question for discussion.

Here are some of their thoughts:

"I think the neurons do die and your spirit goes to heaven." Krystal

"When you go to heaven your neurons are still alive." Harlie

"When you die you can come alive again, you could be having a long dream." Sacha

"When you die you can only see your bones - your spirit goes to heaven." Jade

"I think when you die your brain cells die." Rebecca

"When we die we have a long dream, when we want something it comes true." Jamie

"When people die I think they have another life. Their spirit goes to heaven, their body dies and their head is in heaven." Charlie

" When you die there is a thing called a spirit, or in other words you soul. Your soul is like something good about you." Naomi

"I think when you die all the pieces of your body melts and that's all there is, bones of us, all our thoughts and brain and neurons go." Ryan

"I think that when I die that my spirit doesn't die, it goes to a country that I wanted to go to when I was alive; there is a red tree, the cows are just black and the houses have no curtains." Kama

"I think when you die you go to heaven, it is in the sky and all the people who are dead go there. When you go to heaven you just float in the air and talk to the other people who are dead." Kelly

"When you die you go up to heaven and can't come down, you stay up there." Jasmine

"I think when you go to heaven God looks after you." Jodie

"I think that when you die your dendrites die too there is nothing left." Kristen

"I think when we die our spirits stay alive." Troy

"I think that our souls go to heaven to a different country that is not real." Connor