Amy E. Herman - smART: Use Your Eyes to Boost Your Brain (Adapted from the New York Times bestseller Visual Intelligence)

smART

Use Your Eyes to Boost Your Brain

Adapted from the New York Times Bestseller Visual Intelligence

Amy E. Herman with Heather Maclean

To Mrs. Helen Mackenzie, my sixth grade teacher, who opened my eyes to the power of words

How to SEE

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

Author Unknown

Grab something to write with and something to write on so when you see this symbol, you can play along with the activities and games in this book!

CHAPTER 1 YOUR BRAIN IS MAGIC

THE HUMAN BRAIN IS A mystery and a marvel. And maybe a little bit magical.* It tells our bodies what to do, consciously and unconsciously. It stores our thoughts and memories, regulates our emotions, and, every once in a while, comes up with really great ideas like antibiotics or waffle cones.

MAGICAL (adjective): having the power to make impossible things happen; able to create things, including illusions, without the viewer knowing how.

Much like when you practice baseball or the piano, every time you use your brain, youre improving it. For example, look at the earlier drawing.

What do you see?

Pretend you had to describe it to someone who couldnt see it. What would you tell them?

Would you tell them half the drawing was in black-and-white and the other half was in color? Would you mention the sketches and numbers on the left side and the colorful splatters that look like paint on the right?

Does the illustration remind you of anything? If youre thinking a brain, youre right. It was meant to look like a human brain.

Did any shapes stand out to you?

Did you find the same shape on both sides? If you saw the two stars, good for you! Your brain is tuned in to both details and patterns. If you didnt, go look for them now.

Scientists used to believe that the brain you were born with was the brain you were stuck with and that some people were just born with smarter brains. But as people lived longer, healthier lives and technology advanced, scientists were able to learn more about the human brain. And they discovered some startling things. Such as the brain can heal itself. Or that it can make new pathways and rewire connections. And that it never stops growing. The brains ability to adapt and change is called plasticity.*

We can improve our brains function at any time in our lives, for all of our lives. The more you engage your brain, the quicker, smarter, and more powerful it will be. Which is helpful not just for your futuregetting a job or following your passionbut also in the present. A better, faster brain can help you right now. It can help you do better in school, have better friendships, be a better judge of situations, and negotiate better deals with the adults in your life (like later bedtimes or a larger allowance). A better, faster brain can help keep you safe, help you solve difficult problems, and help you see what everyone else may have missed.

PLASTIC as a noun refers to the material used to make video game controllers and water bottles. Plastic the adjective means capable of being molded.

In 1905, an eleven-year-old named Frank Epperson was in his San Francisco backyard making his favorite drinkflavored powder stirred into waterwhen his mother called him inside. He set his cup down and forgot all about it. There was an unseasonal frost overnight, and the next morning Frank found his cup had completely frozen, the stirring stick standing straight up in the colored ice. He tipped the cup upside down, removed it, held the stick, and licked the delicious fruity icicle. He realized other kids might like to do the same, so he intentionally began freezing his flavored water in small cups with sticks and called them Epsicles. Today the company he started sells two billion Popsicles a year.

When Hannah Taylor was five years old, she saw something countless other people had seen before her: a homeless man eating out of a trash can. Instead of just shrugging it off though, Hannah decided to do something about it. Three years later, she founded the Ladybug Foundation to raise awareness and funds for the homeless community. She became a voice for the homeless, speaking to crowds of sixteen thousand people at a time, and so far, shes raised $2 million to help the cause.

When twelve-year-old Jessica Maples grandmothers house was robbed, she was told by police that since they found no signs of forced entry, the burglar was someone who had used a key to get in. Jessica did her own detective work, though, and discovered a broken window and fingerprints the police had missed in the attached garage. She then thought about what the criminals would do with the stuff they stole and decided they might try to sell it for money. She visited a local pawnshop and found some of her grandmothers belongings there. When she told the police, they were able to interview the shop owner about who had sold them the items, and the suspects were arrested.

What did these three kids have in common? They all saw something everyone else had missed.

Want to be the hero in your own life, for your family, or for your community? You dont need superpowers, just a supercharged brain.

Supercharging your brain is easy, and anyoneI mean anyonecan do it. It doesnt matter where you go to school or how many books youve read. It doesnt involve memorizing or math. All it takes to increase your brains capacity for thinking and problem solving, to help you become the next inventor or crime solver or great humanitarian, is three simple steps: