by The Open University
Available in 11 free installments
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Two sources of fuel are particularly important to ensure a healthy and efficiently functioning brain ? oxygen and water. Fortunately, in many countries, both of these are in ready supply! Many schools in the UK are already beginning to recognise the need for students (and their brains) to be sufficiently hydrated, and have installed water-coolers at strategic points. Oxygen is easier to supply, but sitting down for a typical 50-minute lesson could decrease the amount of oxygen delivered to the brain by 15 per cent. Something as simple as getting students to stand up or fetch a textbook from a designated point across the classroom could ensure a more thoroughly oxygenated supply of the blood to the brain, and therefore more efficient brain performance.
Recent research (for example Trevor Brocklebank at Leeds cited in Lucas, 2001) has discovered that most of the students with the best results at school were those who drank around eight glasses of water per day. Find out if your school has a policy on allowing drinking water in classrooms. Is this something you might investigate for them? Try to involve your students in the discussion. Where would they like water fountains? Or water coolers? How would they be funded?
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