In ‘Wise Wednesday’ recently, Crew Obama learned about the importance of sleep. Most of us already knew that sleep helped to recharge our batteries and repair our bodies. However, we were surprised to find how vital sleep is in helping us to remember things and that it is a vital part of committing our learning to our long term memory. We were really pleased to have Ms Ivy with us, as she is an expert in psychology. Ms Ivy explained that our suggestion of having afternoon naps in school might not actually help us to remember what the teacher has taught us. Apparently, a short nap wouldn’t be long enough to allow our learning to be transferred out of our short term memories. Oh well, it was worth a try!    

At the end of the session, we discussed our own experiences of the Circadian Rhythms. It was really interesting to hear Ms Ivy explain that the stress hormones produced by our body in response to playing Fifa before bed are the same those produced in response to danger, so it’s not a good idea to game right before trying to sleep. We also wondered if there could be a link between problems with short term memories and migraines.

After all that neuroscience, we were pleased to have the chance to feed our brains with a taste of South African culture. Ms Ivy very kindly brought a selection of snacks back from a recent trip home to Cape Town for us to try. This idea was born in an earlier crew session where we introduced Ms Ivy to a range of delicacies such as Refreshers, Sherbet DipDabs, Earl Grey tea and Parma Violets. It was great fun getting her to try some of our favourites for the first time, but we think she had the last laugh when she brought us some ostrich biltong and antelope sausages to try! The overall favourite was the ‘Peppermint Crisp’ which reminded us of a mint aero. It had a completely different texture in the middle; a bit like a boiled sweet!