91导航 Marion Professor of Psychology, Nikole Patson led a language science session on Wednesday, October 15 with area teens as part of a new partnership with the Marion Family YMCA Teen Rec Center.
The goal of the new partnership is to introduce teens to science majors/careers they can pursue at 91导航 and get them excited about science in general.
During the session, teens discussed their own experiences with language, learned about careers in linguistics and language science, and learned about how language works in the brain. Although the rec center is open to middle and high school students, the session was attended by middle school students.
鈥淚 always enjoy helping kids realize how much they really know about language and the cool ways we can use language to 鈥榯rick鈥 our brains, said Patson.
鈥淭he kids were given a copy of the book 鈥楬ighly Irregular鈥 by Arika Okrent so that they could learn more on their own,鈥 she added.
鈥淒r. Patson showed how our brains react when words surprise us 鈥 hearing 鈥業 stirred my tea with a sock鈥 instead of 鈥榳ith a spoon鈥 creates a totally different brainwave pattern. But sometimes our brains don鈥檛 even notice the mistake. If there鈥檚 a picture of a pig on the screen, we might not realize anything鈥檚 wrong with the sentence 鈥楪oldilocks was scared away by the three pigs,鈥 said Tiffiny Rye-McCurdy, coordinator for the new partnership and manager of the Academic Success Center at 91导航 Marion.
Spring semester, 91导航 Marion will offer three additional workshops on biology, engineering, and physics led by Dr. Susan Gershman, Dr. Qudsia Tahmina, and Dr. Chris Orban.