Breakfast is early here in Bir -- 6:30 am. That's not a problem for me, at least not yet, because I was up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep. The dining hall is a 10 minute walk through a forested area about the Sherabling Monastery. This morning it was cool, with a slight breeze blowing through the valley.
My first class did not start until 9 am so I had a chance to review my slides and get the classroom set up. All the monks were on time before I started teaching. My introduction to neuroscience starts with a bit of a personal introduction about who I am and what I do. Then, with a game called "Snowball," I learn a bit about what the monks know and do not know about the brain. Each monk writes his name on a piece of paper and a fact about the brain and then rolls the paper into a ball.
The monks then throw their paper balls at a wall, then pick up a different paper ball. They must find the person whose name is on the paper and find out what the other person knows about the brain.
I also learned about the monk's knowledge of the brain with a game of "What's a Brain." Pairs of monks get an everyday object and must make a list of how the object is similar and different from the brain. Many of the monks provided interesting comments such as when one group compared a rubber band to the brain. This group said that a rubber band can stretch physically and the brain can also stretch to learn new things.
The monks were also challenged to place 15 different neuroscientific discoveries in chronological orders. This is a difficult exercise and none of the four groups got all of the events in the correct location.
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