‘Do you always have to wear a white suit?’ The question immediately causes giggles in the class. Marlijn Besten laughs. No, she explains, not all researchers walk around in lab coats. She briefly tells them who she is, what her hobbies are and why she does research. The ice is broken.
Marlijn is interested in thoughts and mental health. She investigates whether techniques can help people to think differently and whether this can prevent mental health problems such as depression. But in the classroom, she starts with something very familiar. “Do you ever think about other things while you're doing something else?” Hands shoot up.
One boy explains how he was still thinking about the previous exercise during basketball, while the coach had already moved on to the next one. As a result, he missed what he had to do next. A girl says that during language class, she kept dwelling on something that had been said earlier. Someone else was looking out of the window at birds. And yet another suddenly thought: 'What if the school suddenly caught fire?
Marlijn nods. Everyone has those kinds of wandering thoughts, she says. Quite often, in fact: about half the time we are awake. Daydreaming is part of that too. When a slide appears about positive and negative thoughts, there is more giggling. The presentation is full of colourful pictures.
Then Marlijn asks a new question: can we also control those thoughts? The class thinks aloud. Stay positive, someone says. Tell yourself, “It'll be alright”. Talk to someone. Find a distraction.
A huge close-up of a raisin, full of wrinkles, appears on the screen. Marlijn asks the children to look at it very carefully. She then explains that focusing on your breathing, on something fun, on what you see, can help to shift your thoughts.
But how do you measure something like that? “How does a researcher know what's going on in your head?” asks Marlijn. “Make a plan,” shouts one pupil. 'Or have someone who can measure it!' The latter is close, says Marlijn. In her own research, she combines asking questions about thoughts with measuring signals from the body, such as heart rate and brain activity. For the latter, participants wear a kind of swimming cap with sensors, she explains, and are given tasks that allow their thoughts to wander deliberately.
Time for action. The children are allowed to measure their own heart rates. First, they have to jump. Then they count the number of beats on their wrists. ‘I have fourteen!’ ‘I have eight!’
Marlijn explains that researchers want to see if anything changes when they conduct an experiment, so they always measure things several times. That's why they'll do it again later. After jumping, the children sit down on the floor. They remain still for a moment. Eyes closed or looking at the floor. Focusing on their breathing. Then they count again. Most children notice it immediately: their heart rate has slowed down. This way, says Marlijn, you can see what an exercise does to your body.
Marlijn wants to make mental health issues discussable and show children how science works. 'If you learn at a young age that everyone struggles with thoughts sometimes, and that you can do something about it, hopefully that will help later on,' she says. 'And I think it's important for children to understand that research isn't something abstract, but something that can be about themselves.'
She teaches the lessons through the Scholierenacademie of the University of Groningen. When setting up this lesson, she received help from someone who had studied to become a primary school teacher, who helped her think about how to make complex subjects understandable and fun for primary school pupils. ‘What I learned most of all is: don't try to tell them everything at once. Choose one clear message and make sure there is plenty of interaction.’
Afterwards, it appears that the message stuck. When the class is asked what they learned, the pupils immediately mention that you have to measure things twice when conducting research and that not all researchers wear lab coats. The content of the lesson is also reflected upon. One pupil says that her father meditates every day. Another repeated that you can become calmer by paying attention to your breathing.
For Marlijn herself, the lesson was just as educational. 'You really have to explain things differently than you would to fellow scientists,“ she says. 'Children force you to be very precise: what do I actually want them to remember?” She sees it as a good sign that she was bombarded with so many curious questions about white coats, daydreaming and heartbeats. “Sometimes the teacher elaborates on my lesson,” says Marlijn. 'Then, in the days that follow, they continue to talk about thoughts, concentration and relaxation.'
Original article (in Dutch): Met een basisschoolklas gedachten onderzoeken
