LEARNING HOW TO LEARN Many learners, whether high school, undergraduate, or graduate students—or even teachers and professors!— are unaware of best practices in learning. Instead, they suffer under illusions of competence, continuing with learning practices that research have shown to be ineffective. This talk provides activities and insight into best practices in learning as revealed by insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Building on cutting edge research involving the “default mode network,” we will explore how and when students should access the brain’s different learning modes to creatively tackle problem-solving while reducing frustration. We will also cover common illusions of competence in learning, such as rereading and using highlight-ing, and learn how to avoid these challenges by applying more powerful techniques such as recall and “chunking.” Simple techniques described here can allow students and instructors to more easily tackle procrastination, which can be one of the most deeply harmful impediments to learning. This talk is meant to provide practical, immediately useful tools to help improve students’ ability to stay on top of tough course material of any type, and to help instructors to better reach and teach their students.

WOMEN IN STEM Women and men develop with equal, often outstanding, abilities at math and science. However, one of women’s advantages is that they also often have a developmental edge over men when it comes to verbal abilities. The result? When women hear the ubiquitous advice to “follow their passions,” they sometimes turn to their undeniable strengths outside STEM. Passions develop about what we are good at. Some subjects, like STEM, take longer to get good at for both women and men. This talk helps women recognize that it’s sometimes important to be patient with passion—don’t just follow your passions, broaden them! Please contact Jan Webster, jwebster@wresa.org, 828.418.0011, x21

or

Vicki Wilson, vwilson@wresa.org, 828.418.0011, x22 with questions.