Unique Features
- Instruction focuses on: self-knowledge, organization, listening, memory, note taking, time management, test taking and self-motivation
- Hands-on exploration and application of alternative strategies provide students with the experience of selecting effective options in variable situations
- Small classes help students relate to and value differences in learning while giving them a chance to appreciate themselves in a better light
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Accountable: 1) pre and post tests document achievement and results are sent home, 2) students rate and evaluate different components of the program providing first-hand feedback
- A Parent Seminar accompanies each Brain Camp and provides an overview of the course content, personal learning style interpretation and tips for creating productive learning environments at home
Personal Pay-Offs for Students Who Attend Brain Camp
- Ability to master homework faster and with greater confidence
- More resourceful and resilient
- Grades to be proud of
- Hassle free homework
- More time to pursue personal interests
- Increased self-knowledge and greater independence
- Improved attitude and achievement
- Reduced stress
- Variety of reliable strategies to resolve new challenges
- More savvy about how to “play the game” of school
- Greater ability to adapt to a variety of teaching styles
- Increased empathy & better flexibility for working with others
Brain Camp Research and Testing
The Brain Camp materials are based on solid research and have been successfully tested with hundreds of students who have demonstrated significant skill improvement.
The Brain Camp materials have been developed and tested since 1991 and were revised and updated in 2007 to take advantage of recent research and experience. The program is based on current brain research and learning theory, and derives its techniques from best-practice models of instruction and learning.
Active, hands-on classes are filled with fun, purposeful activities that employ proven strategies for students to examine, practice and evaluate for inclusion as part of their customized learning system. Exercises are designed to give students practice at using specialized techniques for various learning situations that are directly applicable to their schoolwork.
Each person must decide if a technique or tool is a “right fit” for them and if they can reliably count on it to improve their performance. Students are encouraged to develop their creativity and apply their individual learning styles to complete the activities.
Camp participants complete pre and post tests to document their note taking and memory skills. Their overall remarkable improvement reflects how a few strategies can make a huge difference in their achievement in a short period of time. On average, students have demonstrated a +34% gain in their note taking skills and a +31% of change in their memory skills.
Natural Learning Strengths
Brain Camp helps young people make the most of their brainpower by building on their natural learning strengths.
Since the brain is the target of all learning – it controls mind and body, everything you think and do – learning how to maximize its power improves learning efficiency and effectiveness. This program begins by having students systematically identify their learning style – that is, how they prefer to take-in, organize and process information. Then they learn to put their strengths to work.
All people are mentally hardwired with favorite ways to study and learn that work easily and naturally for them. Since you can’t change the way your brain works, the most productive solution is to adjust the way you use it by incorporating brain-compatible strategies that take advantage of its strengths.
Learning can be fun, faster and longer lasting if you do it in ways that best suit you.
Understanding your individual, unique style of learning helps you make smarter choices about how, when and where you can work most productively with the greatest results. This information provides each person with a context for choosing effective study solutions. Plus, using your natural learning strengths is energizing, makes it easier to pay attention and focus, and leaves you feeling good about yourself.
Empowering Students
Brain Camp empowers students to be more resourceful, reliable and resilient learners.
Years of experience have demonstrated that students have a very limited repertoire of study strategies to apply to their work. They relentlessly rely on the same techniques no matter what the result. Rarely do they move out of their comfort zone on their own to acquire more successful ways to study and learn. No one can be very resourceful when the options at their disposal are so minimal.
Brain Camp promotes elaborate rehearsal techniques as opposed to the more common and colossally ineffective practice of rote rehearsal (repeating the information over and over). Rote rehearsal is primarily auditory, the least effective input strategy for most people, and the most unreliable way to remember. Elaborate rehearsal requires involvement and significantly increases recall. It encourages hands-on, right-brain engagement to do something creative with the information.
Most secondary and post-secondary instructors assume and expect students to have mastered the skills of organization, time management, study and constructive output necessary for their coursework. Unfortunately, lack of these how to skills creates great frustration and procrastination, diminishes self-confidence and ultimately leads to poor performance.
Resourcefulness requires a variety of strategies and tools to apply to new and existing challenges – one technique does not fit all situations. Getting comfortable and feeling confident using a wide range of tactics greatly increases opportunities for success. Brain Camp proposes learning solutions that strengthen the behind-the-scenes skills required across the board in every school subject: self-knowledge, organization, listening, memory, note taking, time management, test taking and self-motivation.
Reliability reflects planning, organization, confidence and independence. Being able to manage time wisely and use high energy “prime-time” to best advantage is a life skill that benefits everyone. Brain Camp helps students identify where their precious time goes, estimate how long it will take to complete a task, and then guides them to find effective solutions to their distractions, procrastination and other time management obstacles.
Organization is another huge component of reliability – you have to be able to find and manage your stuff in order to meet deadlines. Brain Camp presents design options for home study areas, backpacks and lockers that encourage students to customize a personal organizational system that is compatible with their learning style.
Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from disappointment, stress or adversity. You don’t see any courses designed to prep people for failure, but we all experience it in one way or another. School challenges students’ resilience every day. How to cope with teachers, difficult course work, competitive athletics, bullies, temperamental friends, etc., requires a lot of personal fortitude and skills. Brain Camp helps students start to get a handle on this difficult, life-long process by developing some strategies for self-motivation.
Equipped with an array of tactics they have faith in, and the ability to manage their internal dialogue with positive self-talk, young people have the wherewithal to bounce back after a disappointing performance. People with the knowledge and means to control the many factors that impact their learning, can take action to improve their circumstances. They know that the next time they can do it better.