Leonardo Da Vinci said “learning never exhausts the mind.” But how many of our learners find this to be true? Unfortunately, not many. Coming back to the present, according to the World Economic Forum the demand for creative thinking will grow by 73% by 2027, followed by analytical thinking, technological literacy, curiosity, and resilience, along with flexibility and agility of thought. These predictions pose a very important question for teachers. How can we instill a passion for learning and at the same time help learners to acquire the set of life skills necessary for their future?

This is where brain science comes in. I first came across neuroscience by reading John Medina’s well-known book Brain Rules, where he describes the effects of stress and sleep, why we forget, and nine more brain rules. Then, in 2020, I was lucky enough to attend a webinar where Curtis Kelly explained how brain science findings apply to learning. That was it. I was hooked. Since then I have been reading and researching neuroscience and its applications in the classroom. I have been trying and testing brain friendly methods and have devised many different activities to help my students. Through lots of trial and error I came up with a methodology called A.R.T. This is an acronym which stands for Arouse curiosity, Recall, and Take off, and it is based on brain-friendly ways of learning which ignite the learners’ natural predisposition to learn and prepare them for their adult life.