Mindful brains in schools

Competition Finalist

This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools To Teach What Matters competition.

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Allez à Changeshop: Mindful brains in schools.

Mind-controlled video games for learning meditation & compassion.

A propos de vous

Organisation: BrainBot, Inc. Visit websiteplus ↓↑ cacher↑ cacher

A propos de vous

Prénom

Rohan

Nom

Dixit

A propos de votre organisation

Nom

BrainBot, Inc.

Pays

États Unis, CA, Berkeley, Alameda County

Pays dans lesquels ce projet crée un impact social

États Unis, CA, Palo Alto, Santa Clara County

Votre organisation est-elle une

Entreprise

Votre rôle dans l’éducation : [case à cocher]

Autre.

Le type d’école(s) à laquelle votre solution est destinée :

Autre

Depuis combien de temps votre organisation opère-t-elle ?

Moins d'un année

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Innovation

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Sélectionnez la phase qui s'applique le mieux à votre solution

Création (un pilote qui vient juste de démarrer)

Depuis combien de temps votre solution est-elle en vigueur?

En place depuis moins d'un an

Le besoin : quel problème tentez-vous de résoudre ?

Traumatic stress affects millions of students in a culture where bullying, fear and issues with self-esteem are far too commonplace. Over a period of months and years, chronic stress can lead to stunted academic achievement and poorer physical and mental health outcomes.

La solution: quelle solution proposez-vous ? Soyez précis !

Mindfulness and meditation are scientifically validated tools for resolving many of the issues in teen lives most difficult to address through traditional pedagogy. Unfortunately, the practice of mindfulness is completely absent from mainstream youth culture. Current attempts to use popular media to encourage meditation training amongst teens has been viewed as out-of-touch with modern entertainment standards and largely rejected by youth.

Rather than taking existing video game designs and attempting to “chocolate coat” didactic material into them, we bring experience with emerging technologies that can be used to create entirely new genres of video games that are both completely novel experiences to youth and naturally lend themselves to training mindfulness. By designing video games that use E.E.G. brainmapping technology as the primary input device, rather than a traditional hand-controlled console controller, we can create first-class entertainment games.

Le système : décrivez un exemple spécifique montrant de quelle façon votre initiative fonctionne ; indiquez vos principales activités.

Kids can play these “mindful games” either at home, after school or in a traditional classroom environment. Users simply put on the headset and load the game application, where their environment and progress is then controlled by their mental states. Current early prototypes using this technology include Star Wars themes where Jedi control of objects is based on the player’s concentration levels. Anthropomorphic flora that grows and responds to a player’s para-sympathetic nervous system. Characters that only respond favorably when the player approaches them in a mental state proven correlated with compassion and empathy. By attaching these and other novel mechanics to interactive game worlds, we can sculpt the players experience to bring them into a range of positive mental states.

The headset reads the child’s attention/meditation levels on a second-by-second basis, acting as a novel and exciting interface into the mindfulness game. After the game play is finished, or assigned “homework” levels have been completed, teachers can optionally review the students attention and meditation scores to make sure they are engaging and benefiting from the application fully, helping them learn alternative focus and mindfulness techniques if necessary.

Le marché : qui sont vos collègues et vos concurrents ? Identifiez les autres personnes qui travaillent à répondre au même besoin et indiquez ce qui vous différencie d'elles. Comment ces concurrents pourraient-ils influencer votre réussite ou votre croissance ?

companies like emindful.com offer MBSR or mindfulness-based stress reduction courses to adults, and various neurofeedback clinics offer meditation and attention training to kids, but no one offers it to them directly and in a medium (games) that they understand.

Maintenant que vous avez bien réfléchi à votre participation, aidez-nous à la présenter.

décrivez votre organisation, votre programme ainsi que les services ou les produits proposés (1 ou 2 phrases brèves). [136 caractères/25 mots]

We are a mindfulness and attention game for kids that comes with a brain-sensing headset.

expliquez le caractère innovant de votre initiative (1 ou 2 phrases brèves). [136 caractères/25 mots]

We use cutting edge brain-state sensing technology, built with advisors from Stanford, UCSF and Brown University, to create fun games.

Impact social

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Jusqu'à ce jour, quels résultats a obtenu votre projet ?

We have begun planning early pilots at local Bay Area locations, but are early in the process and have no concrete results yet.

Quelles sont vos prévisions en termes d'impact au cours des trois prochaines années?

We want to teach how to be more present, aware and mindful to kids around the country in a scalable, economically self-sufficient way. There's no reason to stop with kids, though- adults too could benefit from the decreased stress and anxiety that have been shown through scientific research of mindfulness, particularly mindfulness based stress reduction.

Quels sont les obstacles qui risquent de freiner votre projet ? Comment pensez-vous les surmonter ?

The hardware to sense the brainwaves costs approximately $100 per device. We plan to find ways to subsidize these devices, allowing administrators to buy a dozen devices in bulk, for example, and then re-use them for multiple classes.

Les meilleures propositions possèdent un programme solide détaillant leurs prévisions pour atteindre et suivre leurs objectifs de croissance. Identifiez vos objectifs à 6 mois pour accroître vos résultats

We are planning our first pilots already across the Bay Area, informing our early design and development goals.

Définissez les trois tâches principales à accomplir pour atteindre ces objectifs à six mois

Tâche 1

Set up and succesfully complete at least one 8 week mindfulnes course

Tâche 2

Analyze data around what worked, what didn't work, and practical implementation details we've learned

Tâche 3

Use these early pilots to drive larger, institutionally-backed programs across a broader geographic area.

Et maintenant, voyez les choses en plus grand ! Identifiez vos objectifs à 12 mois

Eventually, we believe we can make mindfulness-training games genuinely popular with kids and adults, driving further adoption

Définissez les trois tâches principales à accomplir pour atteindre vos objectifs à 12 mois

Tâche 1

Prove the model

Tâche 2

Iterate on the design and game mechanics of the first mindfulness game we've released

Tâche 3

Identify which groups to target next, and build a new game or iterate our current one to address that market.

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]

In early 2011, Rohan had been doing meditation neuroimaging research at Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Sara Lazar. In his spare time, he had been trying to create a mindfulness game on his own with limited success.
One of his meditation lab colleagues happened to be teaching a mindfulness based stress reduction course around the same time. Ravi, who had been working as a research manager in the MIT Teacher Education Program since his master’s work in educational game design, attended the mindfulness course and through the instructor was introduced to Rohan. They both immediately saw the applications of the designs he had been working with for mindfulness games and began collaborating.

Viabilité

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Quels sont vos différents partenariats ?

We have partnered with RockHealth, a Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic associated non-profit healthcare seed incubator. www.rockhealth.org

Avec quelle équipe (employés, bénévoles, etc.) pensez-vous atteindre vos objectifs de croissance définis dans la section sur l'impact social? [75 mots]

We already have a team of developers. We would like to be able to hire a child-game professional artist and at least two school counselors or teachers to help us tailor our game to the "real world" of middle and high schools across the country.

Expliquez plus en détails les besoins et les offres indiqués ci-dessus ou proposez un type d'aide non mentionné dans la liste

il y a 59 semaines Rohan Dixit updated this Competition Entry.
il y a 59 semaines Rohan Dixit submitted this idea.