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Gate Symposium 2017

How does the chemistry and structure of the brain physically and mentally impact an individual's athleticism?

gate symposium reflection #4

5/20/2017

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5/19/17
​GATE Symposium Reflection #4
Our driving question for Symposium was “How does the structure and chemistry of the brain impact an individual's physical and mental athleticism?” Our ISD had to be revised a few times but we got the hang of it and got it approved. Before this project I wasn’t fully aware of the tactics athletes used to succeed besides physical tactics and the whole thing has really given me a new perspective! Having to conduct scholarly research for this project has taught me more about the credibility of things written and said by people. Not only credibility for research but just in general it’s helped me look for little signs in news articles and really take a minute to myself and think “Wow did this really happen?” and I believe this is a healthy habit I’ve developed in the past weeks. I’ve learned to be more confident in the way I speak and act through the oral presentation, I wouldn’t say I’m at the standards of a legendary public speaker now but I think I’ve improved. Overall I think I did great at socializing in the collaborative process and I believe the one thing I would’ve done differently is try to work at a faster pace so ultimately in the end I could’ve added more to the actual creative part if the board. The one piece of advice I would give to a student would be to not be intimidated by the booklet, mentors, or event as whole since there will be plenty of people supporting you along the way.

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Progress Photos!

5/14/2017

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Student Led Research Results

5/14/2017

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Our interview: 
How does the structure of the brain impact an athlete’s ability to be good at playing a sport?
Well, this is a complicated question. I would say that it depends on the sport. There are structural changes that can occur and improve performance as it relates mainly to motor control. So, for example, enhanced structure or connectivity in motor areas can improve things like hand-eye coordination.
Is the brain structure and mental ability incorporated in training athletes to improve in their sport? 
​There is some evidence that brain training in sport specific methods can improve performance. There are techniques that people have tried, especially as it relates to improving reaction times and processing speed.
How is the structure of the brain responsible for an athlete’s competitive mindset or physical abilities?
I don't have a good answer for this one. What I can say, from our research, is that highly competitive endurance athletes (like cross country runners) appear to have brains with stronger connections between areas responsible for things like planning and attention (what we call executive functions). These strengthen connections may reflect increased reliance on these cognitive functions during running.
What we learned:
What we learned, was that there is no straight answer to whether or not the structure of the brain can be changed or not. Also, we know from our interview, that people have a higher intensity rate in their sport that have executive functions which makes them more persistent in their sport.
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Info Synthesis Document

5/14/2017

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View ISD Here!
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Reflection #2

5/14/2017

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Our driving question and topic changed a considerable amount since the last reflection. We went from sports rivalries and how they affect communities to how the brain structure and chemistry impact an individual’s mental and physical athleticism. We changed and developed our driving question so it could have more of a twist to it. For our student-led research part of the process we’re doing the “interview an expert option” since it would benefit us and help us gain more information that’s credible and from someone who studies our subject. Making sure we were interviewing the right type of person for the SLR plan wasn’t extremely difficult but we faced trial and error. Of course in the end we found an expert who generously allowed us to interview them through email. For the creativity step I need to make sure I clear out time to work on the board and hopefully stay after school for the mentor-ships more often. For the creativity process basic crafting supplies would be needed but I’m sure those will be provided which is appreciated. So far into this stage of the the project the collaboration is going really well. Neither of us have procrastinated and we’re getting work done at a pretty good rate. The only thing that’s slightly off is the days we can and can’t stay for mentor-ship but even so we're getting work done.
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REflection #3

5/11/2017

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Since the last reflection I’ve written I’ve further learned how to better connect and use the GATE Icons/imperatives with my topic. Also through the process of creating an ending question I’ve thought more about surgeries that could potentially improve an individual’s physical abilities and talents. I really never noticed this about myself before but when I write some kind of paper or document I always feel the need to get it proofread by multiple people. It’s not anything bad but I’ve just never noticed this about myself until now. Our tri fold is designed to be a combination of a sports field and the brain (the texture of the brain) since that’s the main topic of our research. While some people believe that you can only excel in one of the categories of academic work or physical activities our tri fold board represents the combination of both structures and how both depend and need each other for a person to function. For our supplement artistic piece we’re thinking about either creating a sculpture or some type of illustration. We’re most likely going to make some kind of sculpture that combines the brain and some kind of trophy to further visualize how the structure of the brain has a major impact on the outcome and benefits a person can get from training mentally. Then again an interactive element could do a splendid job of helping people understand what parts of the brain influence mental and physical athleticism. All the things we could possibly need have already been provided to us so I’m sure we’ll be able to finish in no time. I personally think our collaboration is going really good so far since we managed to get all of our research approved and on our board.
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Reflection #1

4/14/2017

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  The article “Mental Preparation of High- Level Athletes” by Kayt Sukel explains that a lot of sports or activities that take mental stamina are dependent on more of the mental status of the player. Meanwhile the article “The Brain- Training Secrets of Olympic Athletes” published by the Huffington Post and written by Carolyn Gregoire clarifies that this ability to be mentally prepared to face any conflict takes years to cultivate. These articles relate to the universal theme of power because these sources explain how this state of focus in the mind has the ability to influence whether or not the athlete can properly play, and this state of clearness can influence aspiring athletes to follow this example of thinking. These articles also help visualize how different conflicts can form different mental hurdles for players and cause their abilities to lack focus. So far into the research for my topic I learned that athletes don’t really “care” about the actual winning step but the anticipation for this winning step which is quite interesting to read about. During the exploration stage of the research process we changed the topic a bit. Initially we were going to have our project based on sport rivalries and how they affect communities but there wasn’t a lot of information to gather or talk about so now we’re making our topic about what it takes mentally (psychologically) to be an athlete. This change in topic isn’t too much of a set back though, in fact we’ve found a lot of informative articles on this subject and I feel like it’s a good start. Well any information that talks about mental health and it’s connections to activities that involve competitive mindsets. So far the collaboration part of the project is going quite well! We’ve made it so that work is split evenly but still in a way that we are properly communicating with one another. Of course we both have to remind each other to not procrastinate since that’s something that we don't want to do to much of since it can cause a major problem but I highly doubt it will.     

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