4/20 Your Brain on Google Earth

BHQ site: (www.brainhq.com)

While we may not be able to get outside and drive or walk around our city right now to keep our brains fresh by enjoying the outdoors and exploring new places, we can still exercise our navigational skills "virtually" with a fun app that Mary is going to teach us all about in this week's lesson. This is a unique and fascinating lesson. Take your time - it's worth it!

Google Earth is an app which provides a look at the world we live in. It has lots of features which makes exploring fun and educational. This week, we will look at the service, and will use it to retrace the journey of Saroo Brierley. As a five-year-old boy in India, he was lost. It took him 25 years, but using Google Earth he found his way home. Click here for the Interactive Lesson, or download a Printable Handout here. In lieu of a quiz this week, please do the "Challenge" activity in your lesson. You can share your results or progress with us on Zoom.

On the BrainHQ Site – As we learned in our Basics class, we all need to maintain and improve our navigational abilities to preserve our independence, feel comfortable in familiar and unfamiliar surroundings, and navigate our world confidently. Google Earth is an excellent way to exercise your navigational skills virtually, just like we do in our BrainHQ Navigation exercises. It's also a novel experience for most of us, and enjoying novelty and new experiences pumps beneficial neuromodulators like norepinephrine and dopamine through our brains, to keep them working efficiently. In addition to the visual spatial skills we strengthen with BHQ navigation exercises; Google Earth can help us practice and strength our mental manipulation, way-finding abilities, sense of direction, landmark recognition, and memory. Now, call up some old memories of places you use to go, and find them on Google Earth (try to remember relative locations of landmarks that would not have changed).

Read more about each of the Navigation exercises and how they help improve your navigation skills by clicking on any of the links above. These links also take you to the video tutorials to see how the exercises should be played. You can also get to information about the Navigation exercises by clicking on the “Exercises” oval on the orange BHQ Home Page, and then scrolling down to the Navigation Category of exercises (the yellow icons).

This week's Zoom Session will be on Wednesday, April 22nd. This week, our lessons are the same for both classes, and we will be spending the entire Zoom hour to review our lesson, explore Google Earth, and discuss what we learned; so plan to join us for the entire hour. It's going to be fun. Here’s our schedule of events:

6:30-7:00: For ALL! Q&A time about any of the BHQ exercises or navigating the BHQ or class websites.

7:00- 8:00: We will review and discuss our the Weekly Lessons on – Your Brain on Google Earth

Just click here to follow the instructions on the Home Page by scrolling down to Weekly Zoom Sessions. Or you can go directly to the Zoom site by clicking here.

First time on Zoom? Just follow the instructions on this Home Page to learn how. Returning students click here to connect directly.

If it’s your first time participating in a Zoom session, you can try it by getting on the site early to see how easy it is to get it set up. We begin our first BHQ Lesson at 6:30, so try getting on at about 6:15-6:30 and call Pat (at the number below) if you have any trouble. You can participate by video and audio, or just listen in by phone. Please let us know if you need help!

Enjoy the lessons, and have a brain-healthy week.

Need help? Contact us at:

Pat Mosteller (pmostell@sdccd.edu) Cell 619-818-3953 - Online classes

Mary Burns (mburns@sdccd.edu) - Online classes

Debbie Flores (dsflores@sdccd.edu) - Cell 619-608-9001 --Online classes & Wednesday AM and PM classes at the Kroc Center

Janet Blair ( blusdbits@gmail.com ) - St Pauls Plaza. Contact for Support and Lesson Review

Yael Lorberfeld (ylorberfeld@sdccd.edu) . Mondays at the Kroc Center, Wednesdays at the College Ave Senior Center (Temple Emanu-El), and Friday mornings at the La Jolla JCC.

Marilyn Kessler (marilynk@ifssd.org) - Mondays at the College Ave Senior Center (Temple Emanu-El)