Crazy by Design, The Neuroscience of Adolescent Brain Development

The Cause

Crazy by Design has been delivered for the past 9 years to parents at many Jr and High schools in Calgary and Area. It is fun, funny and very informative. Parents are often amazed at how often they are working against the brain and they find ways to work with the brain during this second period of exuberance of the brain. Because of the success of the program, the response of parents and teachers, the frequent participation of student and the constantly evolving neuroscience information - I'd like to suggest that we pilot a new approach to Crazy by Design - in two schools in the Calgary area. The idea is to have the adolescents themselves collect information, build the presentations and, most importantly, deliver it to the parents of their school once each year. We will join with the Hodgkiss Brain Institute as our local collaborator and build on what has been learned over the past decade of delivering Crazy by Design to parents, educators and professionals . Brain Awareness week (March) will be part of this year long project. The methods of delivery will be generated by the tech-save students themselves. Ideas of how to communicate the information will be formulated by the youth, supported by professions and the impact on the parents tracked for outcomes purposes. This learning will then be transferred to other schools for their unique approach to the delivery of Crazy by Design.
Basic brain development, left and right sides of the brain, risk vs reward, sleep and technology, male and female differences, significant changes in the corpus callosum, sick lit and how it affects behaviour, exercise and learning, and the massive changes in the pre-frontal cortex....and more!

Who Will it Benefit?

The adolescents themselves find the information fascinating and helpful to their own self awareness and development. It tends to generate "word-of-mouth" interest through social media and is a health based awareness campaign generated by youth! The parents learn that parenting at this age is a more sophisticated endeavour but one that demands their involvement and careful consideration. It tends to have a ripple effect in the whole school as the teachers absorb the neuroscience of the adolescent brain and build it into their approaches in general. Crazy helps with retention, communication, and cohesion - within the school, within the family within the teen community.