Gerontology: Can lifestyle choices protect your brain as you age?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 health and biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Tina Brinkley, a gerontologist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is investigating how diet, exercise and social activity influence brain health as we age.

• This resource also contains an interview with Tina and offers an insight into careers in gerontology. If your students have questions for Tina, they can send them through the Futurum Careers website.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Tina’s research and challenges them to design a week-long brain boosting schedule containing activities to promote their brain health.

This resource was first published by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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