2011 ABF Conference: “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning: Implications for Education”

The Aspen Brain Forum (ABF) held its second successful conference at the Aspen Institute in partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) on September 22nd-24th. The elegant Doerr-Hosier Building was filled with scientists, teachers, government policymakers, and private sector entrepreneurs from around the world, as well as members of the ABF Board of Directors, all focused on leading-edge neuroscience research with implications for improving education for a broad range of students. Also in attendance were editors/writers from Science magazine and Scientific American MIND, which plans to publish an article on this year’s ABF conference. More than 200 attendees registered for this year’s conference, representing a 70% increase over our 2010 conference. Also 50 teachers, principals, superintendents from the Aspen valley area attended on scholarship.

The conference was launched on Thursday evening with an entertaining and informative keynote lecture by Goldie Hawn who spoke about the “MindUP” and “Optimistic Classroom” programs developed by her Hawn Foundation. These programs combine recent discoveries in the neuroscience of learning with time-tested mindfulness techniques to optimize students’ awareness, curiosity, retention of knowledge, and their overall learning experience. For more information visit: www.thehawnfoundation.org/mindup Goldie’s lecture was open to the public and represents ABF’s commitment to share recent developments in brain science with the residents of Aspen and surrounding communities!

On Saturday Dr.Carl Wieman, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate Physicist, creator of the Science Education Initiative, and Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, gave a keynote lecture discussing his development of the Science Education Initiative, explaining his role in educational policy at the White House, sharing the process of formulating educational policy at the national level, and examining how research into the neuroscience of learning could contribute to improvements in the educational system. For more information visit this link: Dr.Carl Wieman, White House.

For two full days, the audience heard top-level presentations by speakers from leading universities, research institutes, and private corporations, covering key aspects of academic research and private sector projects intended to enhance the learning experience and success rate of students from K-12 and at the university level. The meeting convened experts in cognitive developmental neuroscience, the neuroscience of learning specifically, and public and private sector creators of educational programs that have proven successful in classroom applications. (For example, read about the JumpMath program at www.jumpmath1.org/philosophy).

There were several thought-provoking panel discussions, including “The Role of New Media in Education and Learning”, “Poverty, Brain Development and Education”, and “Translating Research into the Classroom”, with lively Q&As between audience members and speakers/panelists.

The valuable information presented at this year’s ABF conference will be made available to a national and international audience on the NYAS website (www.nyas.org ) via their "eBriefings" section and also on the ABF website (www.aspenbrainforum.com), offering speakers’ audio and Power Point presentations. Goldie Hawn’s presentation was recorded/filmed and will also be available. Also please find information about the conference on the Aspen Brain Forum’s Facebook page.

We want to thank our media partners who helped disseminate information about this year’s conference: the DANA Foundation and Scientific American MIND. The DANA Foundation has also provided a grant to create a podcast of our 2011 ABF conference, so that educators and policy makers will have increased access to the crucial research information recently presented in Aspen.

We also wish to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a grant supporting the ABF conference.

During the conference, ABF Founder and President, Glenda Greenwald, presented the “Aspen Brain Forum Prizes in NeuroEducation”, two awards of $7,500 each recognizing superior achievement by a senior scientist and a young researcher, to Usha Goswami, Ph.D. for her research on dyslexia at Cambridge University and to Kimberley Lakes, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, for her research on the importance of incorporating physical exercise into the school curriculum.

The Aspen Brain Forum President Glenda Greenwald and her husband, Jerry, hosted a delightful private dinner at their home for conference speakers, organizers, and members of the ABF Board. Glenda and Nobel Laureate, Dr.Carl Wieman, both spoke before the dinner about the importance of developing educational programs, based on detailed Neuroscientific research, that would enhance and maximize the learning potential of a broad range of students.

Glenda Greenwald and Joseph Dial met with the NYAS team led by Sonya Dougal, Ph.D. and Brooke Grindlinger, Ph.D. to lay the groundwork for the 2012 ABF meeting, “The Language of the Brain”, which will be held the third week of September, 20-22, 2012 at the Aspen Institute. This conference will bring together four cutting-edge fields of neuroscience research that are currently focused on solving the riddle of what “language” the brain uses to communicate and perform its many crucial tasks or, in simpler terms, “cracking the neural code”. Solving this riddle will be the neuroscience equivalent to Crick and Watson’s discovery of the DNA double-helix, which won the Nobel Prize and opened up the “genetic code” necessary to create the exciting and highly productive field of genomics.

We will keep you posted over the next few months on new developments related to the 2012 ABF conference. As always, please feel free to contact Glenda or Joseph with any thoughts you may have on the work of ABF in general.

We want to thank the NYAS team – Ellis Rubinstein (President), Sonya Dougal, Brooke Grindlinger, and Crystal Johnson for their hard work and commitment, resulting in another superior meeting! We also wish to thank the scientific organizers of the meeting – Bruce McCandliss, Adele Diamond, Daphne Bavelier, and Ken Pugh – for their selection of an excellent group of speakers!

And we extend our sincere appreciation to all ABF Board members and Scientific Advisory Board members for their support, ideas, and inspiration resulting in a second highly-successful ABF conference!