The awesomely evolved human brain.

• Position: HEADS UP REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY

The lesson below and the reproducible work sheet on the reverse side reinforce student comprehension of key facts and concepts in the accompanying article, "The Awesomely Evolved Human Brain."

Standards Alignment

These Heads Up materials are Common Core-ready and are also aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Visit scholastic.com /headsup/standards for a complete standards chart.

Before-Reading Questions:

* How do you think your brain might be involved in making decisions about what to eat?

* What do you know about how your brain processes information and comes to conclusions?

* What do you know about how you can keep your brain's natural chemicals in balance?

* What do you know about how drugs work inside the brain?

After-Reading Questions (factual responses in italics):

* What is homeostasis and why is it important? (Homeostasis describes a person's internal environment when that environment is stable and balanced. When in balance, the brain is capable of amazing feats of intelligence, giving people the best chance of succeeding in school and fife. Drugs or foods that result in unbalanced dopamine levels can cause physical changes to the brain that detract from achieving success.)

* How can you keep your brain in balance? (Keep dopamine levels in balance by eating moderate portions of healthy foods and consuming processed treats on occasion. Avoid drugs.)

* How might drugs interfere with how the brain works? (Drugs can turn the natural chemical process that produces healthy dopamine levels to reward behaviors into one that releases abnormally high dopamine levels, resulting in compulsive behavior. The unnaturally large dopamine spikes cause your brain to adapt to this new, larger amount of dopamine so that you need large amounts of dopamine just to feel normal.)

* What is the connection between eating unhealthy foods and using drugs? (Both involve overloading the brain with dopamine and upset the balance of the...