(An Example)
PREFACE:
Terminology is a substantial part of learning any new content. In the sciences particularly, remembering terms is central to learning scientific concepts. Term attainment always precedes concept attainment.
MUC…in practice:
Within the temporal lobe folds on each side of the brain resides a structure responsible for one’s memory. If I wanted to teach this, I could explain this function, and then provide the name of the structure that performs it; hoping that the recipient can remember both. Or, I could explain the function and then tell a simple story…to help solidify an intertwined understanding of both.
Here’s the story approach:
About a year ago in the spring I was approaching an entrance onto the campus of my alma mater, Michigan State University. I was sitting in my car stopped at a light and was enjoying an unusually warm day; ‘had all my windows down. As I sat there waiting for the light to change I began to hear a sound coming from over my right shoulder through the open window on the passenger side of my car. The sound was like that made when one is walking on sand or loose gravel…on hard pavement. But this was much louder and firmer in strength. It also seemed that I could feel a slight tremor on the ground. As I glanced back over my shoulder I was aghast at what I saw! There, approaching on the passenger side, was the first in a line of about a dozen or so hippopotamus! These huge pachyderms ambled past my car and slowly progressed toward the entrance onto the university campus. As they went past, not only did I hear and feel the gritty crunching of the gravel under their huge round feet, but I also smelled each one; that strong animal-mixed-with-straw, zoo-like smell! I watched this line of beasts move past my car and onto the MSU campus. There they disappeared from sight.
As the light changed and I drove on, what seemed a bizarre and confusing sight suddenly became clear and I came to understand what was happening. The hippopotamus, like the elephant, is an intelligent animal with a highly acute memory. “The elephant never forgets” aphorism came back to me. As a member of the same order of animals (pachyderms), this statement also holds true for the hippopotamus. As I remembered this, what I had just witnessed was no longer a mystery to me. These hippos were going onto the MSU campus to improve their learning. Clearly then, Michigan State University must be the hippo campus!
“Hippocampus” is the structure within the brain wherein resides the memory function.
ENDNOTE:
While it may seem that this story approach is too time consuming, most people find that they can generate their own uniquely personal story paradigms almost instantaneously, through the practice of Synergistic Thinking.
