Education RSS Feed
In Your Classroom: Face Reader
by
When I first encountered the Face Reader, I was taken with the use of the ESP (Emotional Social Prosthesis) to help children with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism which may have a genetic component. Such intervention and help parallels that for children who suffer from metabolic disorders, such as phenylketonuria (PKU) which is clearly genetic. In those cases, alteration of diet prevents the mental retardation which results if the condition is untreated. Similarly, the use of the ESP for children with Asperger's syndrome holds the promise of easing isolation and helping in social situations.
In studying the brain, one could ask what parts of the brain are normally used in recognizing and interpreting facial expressions, and when these parts of the brain develop. Ideally, students will find that teenage brains are not "done" yet, and that some of the maturing involves those very areas that are needed in forming judgments. Frontline investigated these topics in its show, "Inside the Teenage Brain."
My students enjoy this video, which I use when we cover the brain and nervous system. In addition, this site contains further resources and links for teachers and students. In an extension, students could do independent research on their own to discover what may cause disorders such as Asperger's syndrome. Good websites include the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Society for Neuroscience: Brain Facts.
If you are incorporating Asperger's syndrome into a general study of the brain and nervous system, here are two good resources for a unit on the brain itself.
The University of Utah has an excellent site for studying the brain and neurotransmitters by approaching the action of addictive drugs. This site is also popular with my students.
The National Association of Biology Teachers and the Society for Neuroscience collaborated to produce "Neuroscience Laboratory and Classroom Activities," which is available from their website. Click on "Resources" on the left of the screen to get to a downloadable copy.
To get back to Asperger's syndrome and the Face Reader, and to highlight the challenge of developing the ESP, I thought of the following activity, which I will try with my students this year: Develop the facial parameters for simple emotions. Divide students into groups of three or four, and challenge the group to come up with facial indicators to differentiate anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. Are there specific combinations of eyebrow placement, eye-squinting, lip placement, etc., for each emotion? How are these quantified? Do the different groups agree? Why or why not? Can the class reach a consensus? Once the indicators are established, have students try them out on family and friends to see if they get the expected response.
And, finally, to put a face on Asperger's syndrome, Tim Page brings to life the experience of a child with Asperger's syndrome in the Personal History article, "Parallel Play," in the August 20 issue of The New Yorker Magazine.
Additional "Wired Science" Video Segments
Don't forget to check out our Video Section for other segments from "Wired Science" that you can use in your classroom including the following stories from this episode:
World War 2.0
Photosynth
What's Inside: Cool Whip
Dangerous Science
Interview with Paul Kedrosky
RoboDoc
Tags: Asperger's Syndrome, Biology, brain development, Episode 101, Face Reader, neuroscience
0 Comments
+ Add Comment
Post your comment