FLVS Brain Challenge: Week 1

It’s been a great first week for the FLVS Brain Challenge!

This week’s top contender is @jozh_legit who comes to us from Instagram with some crazy bike tricks. It’s obvious that he’s been making progress in learning some new moves this summer. Search for #FLVSBrainChallenge to see for yourself!

Think you can show us something even crazier? You could be our next big featured participant – or even our final winner! All you need to do is share a video of you learning something new on Vine or Instagram.

Learn more about our contest and how to enter here.

One of our top participants will also have the chance to win 4 admission tickets to Kennedy Space Center!

As an organization that’s on a journey to inspire, innovate, and discover, new ways of thinking are at the heart of what NASA is all about. Innovation involves reimagining what’s possible and dreaming about what could be – breaking out of the norm and choosing to see and do things differently.

Most kids learn how to ride bike at a young age. Think riding a bike is easy?

What if that bike’s handlebars were engineered to be backward…the exact opposite of what you are used to? Cognitive psychologists often compare our brain to a computer learning and executing new algorithms. If one program or lesson is already set in place, it can be challenging to “overwrite” this with a new pattern of behavior or a new way of thinking. Thankfully, it’s not impossible!

Take a look at this cool video by engineer Destin Sandlin, producer of the YouTube series “Smarter Every Day,” as he learns to ride a “backwards bicycle.”

After spending five minutes a day for several months, he says…

“One day I couldn’t ride the bike and the next day I could. It was like I could feel some kind of pathway in my brain that was now unlocked.”

How long do you think it would take you to learn a backwards bike?

Let us know in the comments and let’s learn the impossible together this summer. Unlock new pathways in your brain by entering the #FLVSBrainChallenge.