1. The first viewing of the movie and stage production is meant to be an engaging community experience to be watched in the presence of others. (with parents, peers or other groups)
   
   Community engagement affects social indicators as crime rate, student performance and economic prosperity.
   Political Science Professor Robert Putnam
   Harvard University
   
2. Participating in a community created movie and stage production offers a learning experience that incorporates developmental levels of thinking and doing.
   
   Imitation (HS stars become role models)
   Symbol (Visual images become concrete foundation for increased learning)
   Language (Professional narration uses more abstract words)
   Consciousness (Viewers become aware of the problem and what to look for)
   Planning (Viewers learn what they can do about the problem)
   Creativity (Community use of the movie project offers multiple possibilities)
   
   Dr. Esther Thelen, Current research at University of Indiana
   A Dynamic Systems Approach To The Development of  Cognition and Action
   
   
3. Participating in the movie project, including simply being part of the audience, allows learning to come from a variety of learning styles.
   
   Multiple Intelligence Theory: Linguistic, Visual, Mathematical, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical, Inter-personal, Intra-personal
   
   Dr. Howard Gardner
   Harvard University
   
   One quarter to one third of the brain's 100 billion neurons are devoted to vision
   
   Dr. Charles Connor/Neuroscientist
   John Hopkins University
   
   
4. An engaging community movie, starring one's own community members, uses and builds on the ability to "pay attention"
   
   The Mind and The Brain; Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force
                           Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, Current Research at UCLA
   
   "Without attention, the image (or sound, or feel-attention plays a role in every sense) does not register in the mind and may not be stored even briefly in memory."
   
   "Images speed from the retina to the visual cortex in the brain. But then competition sets in. The winner is determined by the strength of the stimulus...the novelty."
   
   "Selectively focusing attention on target images significantly enhances neuronal responses to them."
   
   "Neurons that respond to a target (the image attracting your attention) fire more strongly than neurons that respond to distractions."
   
   "Attention must be captured.  One cannot demand attention. One can demand obedience, but not attention. New learning requires attention."
   
   "Novelty captures attention."
   
   "Paying attention can do more than enhance the responses of selected neurons. It can also turn down the volume in competing regions."
   
   While community members wait expectantly for their movie to begin, "Even before an object appears, attention has already stacked the neuronal deck, activating the visual cortex and, even more strongly, the frontal and parietal lobes...As a result, when the stimulus finally show up it evokes an even greater response in the visual cortex than if attention had not primed the brain."
   
   "When you pay attention to something, the part of the brain that processes 'that something' becomes more active."
   
   "Attention exerts real physical effects."
   
   "Attention can sculpt brain activity by turning up or down the rate at which particular sets of synapses fire....firing a set of synapses again and again makes them grow stronger, it follows that attention is an important ingredient for neuroplasticity."
   
   PET scans show that during trail and error experimenting, the brain is ablaze with activity. "In particular, the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, anterior cingulated, caudate, and cerebellum were very active; all are involved in planning, thinking and moving." ..... Effortless automaticity dramatically diminishes mental and cerebral activity."
   
   
5. Varied uses of the movie to continue the ability to "pay attention."
   (If watched subsequent times)
   
   The second time one sees it, pay attention to the words that are said.
   The third time one sees it, pay attention to how toxic waste is suppose to be disposed of. (Protective gear, coats, gas masks, gloves, etc.) Then pay attention to how meth cooks dispose of the waste.
   The fourth time one sees it, pay attention to how neurons talk to each other and how Meth affects them.
   
   "Different regions of the cortex increase in size when exposed to stimulating  
    conditions."
   
   Dr. Carolyn B. Heriza, EdD., PT
   Current Research/School of Rehabilitation Sciences
   Rocky Mountain University

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