TOP RESEARCHERS DISCUSS THE SCIENCE BEHIND CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION at the LEARNING & the BRAIN® CONFERENCE
MEDIA ADVISORY
February 1, 2013
Contact:
Kristin Dunay
(781)-449-4010 x 102
[email protected]
EDUCATING FOR CREATIVE MINDS: USING BRIAN SCIENCE TO IGNITE INNOVATION AND IMAGINATION
WHAT:
At this month’s Learning & the Brain® Conference at the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel, a national group of neuroscientists, creativity researchers and educators will explore some of the latest research on creativity, its importance to the brain and learning and ways to teach creativity and innovation to students. Neuroscience research is discovering how the creative process works in the brain and the importance of the arts and creativity for child development and learning.
A cross-spectrum of more than 1,500 educators will be attending to learn how creativity can be enhanced and nurtured in schools. A 2011 report by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities found that today’s high school graduates are “lacking the creative and critical thinking skills needed for success in the post secondary education and workforce.” However, today’s schools are for the most part not teaching the skills needed for the 21st Century and instead are reducing time devoted to play, the arts, thinking and reflection. The conference will provide evidence of the importance of the arts and creativity for the brain and learning.
Dr. Nancy C. Andreasen of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and recipient of the President’s National Medal of Science will be giving one of the conference’s keynote addresses. She will discuss how the capacity to be creative—to produce new concepts, ideas, inventions, objects, or art—is perhaps the most important attribute of the human brain. Dr. Andreasen will be exploring issues such as how to define creativity, what psychological processes or environmental circumstance cause creative insights to occur and what is happening at the neural level during moments of creativity.
WHO:
The program is produced by Public Information Resources, Inc. and is co-sponsored by several organizations including Stanford University School of Education, the Greater Good Science Center and the Cognitive Control Lab, both of the University of California, Berkeley, the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, and both the national associations of elementary and secondary school principals. In addition to Dr. Andreasen, some of the featured keynote speakers will be:
- Milton Chen, PhD, will set the tone for the educational conference. He will discuss the creativity edge in education in the areas of arts, technology and passion. Senior fellow and executive director, emeritus at the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF), Dr. Chen is the author of Education Nation: Seven Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools (2010).
- Tina L. Seelig, PhD, Neuroscientist; Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, School of Engineering; Director, Stanford Entrepreneurship Network, Stanford University; Director, National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation; Winner of the 2009 Bernard M. Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education and the 2008 National Olympus Innovation Award; Author, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity (2012)
- Yong Zhao, PhD, Presidential Chair; Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education, University of Oregon; Director, Center for Advanced Technology in Education; Author, World Class Leaders: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (2012) and Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization (2009)
- John Seely Brown, PhD, Visiting Scholar and Advisor, Provost, University of Southern California; Independent Co-Chairman, Center for the Edge, Deloitte; Co-Founder, Institute for Research on Learning; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education; Co-Author, A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination in a World of Constant Change (2011)
WHEN:
Thursday, February 14 through Saturday, February 16, 2013. Conference Begins 1:30 PM on Thursday. General Registration is $589.
Contact Kristin Dunay at 781-449- 4010 x 102 for media passes.
WHERE:
The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, CA
Learning & the Brain® is a series of educational conferences that brings the latest research in neuroscience and psychology and their potential applications to education to the wider educational community. Since its inception in 1999, this series has been attended by more than 35,000 people in Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago.
