Alcohol, who knew it could damage your brain!

This evening our Psychology class had the opportunity to attend a lecture on the adolescent brain and alcohol. The beginning of the lecture began with the speaker, Karen Williams, explaining the brain and a bit of the anatomy that goes along with it. I found this lecture to be very informative and a great topic especially for middle school students(her intended audience). The main emphasis was on how the developing brain can be damaged when effected by alcohol.

As I sat listening to the lecture I was intrigued with the information she presented and how it was presented. I will not disagree that alcohol can have negative impacts on the brain, but I feel that the evidence provided was exaggerated and since Karen Williams is only interpreting the information, I don't know how much it is correct. So, on that note, I don't want to put down the lecture, so instead I tried to focus on the educational aspects of it, particularly her lecturing method.

The power point that Karen had was a very effective tool for the lecture. Unlike other power points that I have seen, this one had information that mainly consisted of pictures and videos. These quick videos helped to keep the audience engaged and focused on the visual kinesthetic needs of those listening. The way in which the information was presented was also very well done and it is evident that she usually talks with younger students. She was energetic and broke down concepts so that her targeted audience would be able to understand. There were a lot of analogies used which assisted in describing the concepts to a general audience.

Overall the lecture brought light the developing brain, and an unintentional example of an effective lecture. Karen demonstrated subject matter competence(though this could be argued) and audience interaction. This will be good to look back on to, especially with the great visuals she had.