Presentations 4/25

The topic for the presentations on 4/25 was "Psychological and Cognitive Sciences". The three presentations covered using music as a tool for leaning, the use of equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP), and the genetics of suicide. All three of the presentations were done very well and had lots of good information. Before Lyndsey's presentation on EFP I had never known it was even a form of treatment. It makes sense though, I know animal therapy with dogs and cats is quite popular especially with the elderly, but I never thought a horse would be all that great a comfort animal. I've also never really been around horses much, and am quite wary of them. I was even more surprised to find out there was an EFP clinic in Bentonville. Matthew explained the difficulties of determining the role of genetics in suicide. Because the event is so devastating, the environmental factors are overwhelming. It's also surprising to remember actually how little we know about brain functioning, and that really we are in the infant stage of understanding how the brain works at all. Nick explained how music can be used as a tool for learning, and in fact we could all sing the ABC song even after first learning it 15-plus-years ago. I feel that music could be integrated into all sorts of areas in the academic curriculum. I remember when we had a substitute teacher in the 4th grade who brought his guitar and let us write songs for what we were doing in class in either English or mathematics. To this day he was the coolest sub I've had for a class. Not only did the music help make things creative and interesting, guitars are also just plain cool, and really helped engage a bunch of rambunctious fourth graders. I definitely think we need to bring more music into schools, as a musician myself, I find that I can wrap my head around more abstract concepts and just "think out of the box" more, so to speak.