Chapter 9 - True learning: the fun-fast way

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True learning: the fun-fast way	337

blends different types of music together for contrast, "because variety stimulates our minds and keeps us alert".30 He also changes the "texture" of the music, from violin to flute through to mandolin and clavichord and piano. The result is a unique sequence that brings serenity, relaxation and anticipation. Taking part in a class with OptimaLearning music is very much like sitting through a classic movie, where the music is a powerful subconscious carrier of the total theme, and the visual art blends with it.
  In a Leo Wood chemistry class, you'll very soon be caught up in that same type of drama. As part of a typical demonstration, the teacher may switch the lights off, turn up a special tape for creativity and imagination, and start mixing chemicals together in a test tube. As the suspense mounts with the music, sparks of light begin popping in the test tube, one at a time. Wood begins talking about light and life and their interaction. The popping becomes more rapid and the sparks much brighter. The teacher introduces the theme: "Life is a miracle, and you and I are part of that miracle." Wood walks to a demonstration table, pours the test tube contents into a large beaker, and says: "We will learn how miraculous life really is." A big burst of fire flashes from a beaker and into the test tube as the music reaches a climax. The lights go on, the music stops, and the students are silently processing what has just happened.
  Says Wood: "The theme for the year has been introduced, properties of three compounds and density are discussed, and the relationship and interaction of light and life have been demonstrated and revealed - all in about 15 minutes."31
  Then he may take the students outside, to stand facing the sun with their eyes closed, before returning to class to write their impressions as Debussy music plays in the background.
  Then in the teacher's finale the students learn of the fusion reaction that occurs on the surface of the sun. But not as a lecture: they actually become the hydrogen atoms as their bodies become a circle, and their fists are brought together in a clasping position to indicate the fusion of the nuclei.
  "We have a little oral quiz at the end of the class," says Wood, "and everyone always gets 100 percent." And in later examinations, the results are spectacular. Before introducing these accelerated learning techniques, 52 percent of Tempe chemistry students achieved A, B and C grades. With the new methods: 93 percent.32
  A full selection of Barzakov music tapes are now readily available.

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