МАЛАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ НАУК 2019

МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ СРЕДНЯЯ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНАЯ ШКОЛА

СЕЛА ДМИТРИЕВКА  МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОГО РАЙОНА

УФИМСКИЙ РАЙОН

РЕСПУБЛИКИ БАШКОРТОСТАН

Исследовательская работа на тему:

«ON THE OTHER HAND»

Выполнила: Краснова Надежда

учащаяся 10 класса

             МОБУ СОШ с. Дмитриевка

Руководитель: Нажипова Алина Данисовна

                                  учитель МОБУ СОШ с. Дмитриевка

 2019

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………..………………………… 3

Who are Left Handed People?……………………………………………………. 4

Are left-handed people smarter than right-handed people?..................................... 5

Is being a left-handed person gives more benefits than challenges?..................... 6

Research  ..………………………………………………………………………    9

Conclusion……………………………………………….………………..…….. 10

References………………………………………..…………………………….... 11

Appendix………………………………………….……………………………... 12

Introduction

The title of our course work is «On the other hand».

If you know an older left-handed person, chances are they had to learn to write or eat with their right hand. And in many parts of the world, it is still common practice to force children to use their “proper” hand. Even the world for rights also means correct or good not just in English, but many other languages too. But if being left-handed is so wrong, then why does it happen in the first place? Between being left handed or right handed caters to certain differences especially in the usage of the brain. Being Left Handed is using the left for various purposes such as writing. On the other hand, being Right-handed is when you are comfortable in using the right hand for writing and other activities. When paying attention to the world statistics, the number of left handed people is much lesser in comparison to right handed people. Through this work let us explore the differences between left handed and right handed people. 

The object of this course work is to find out who the lefties are.

The subject of this course work is to find out that left-handed people are smarter than right-handed people.

And we put the following tasks to gain this aim:

•        to consider why people use left or right hand;

•        to find out the difference between lefties and righties.

        The hypothesis of our work is: are being left-handed person gives more benefits than being right-handed?

Who are Left Handed People and who are Right Handed People?

Today about 1/10 of the world’s population are left-handed. Archeological evidence shows that it’s been that way for as long as 500,000 years. With about 15% of human remains showing their associated differences in arm length and bone density and some ancient tools and artifacts showing evidence of left-hand to use. And despite what many may think, handedness is not a choice. The causes of left-handedness may depend upon genetic factors, and sometimes, on environmental factors too. Physicians have attributed left-handedness to high levels of testosterone in the womb. It can be predicted even before birth based on the fetus’ position in the womb.  

So, if handedness is inborn, does that mean it is genetic? Well, yes and no. Identical twins, who have the same genes, can have different dominant hands. In fact, this happens as often as it does with any other siblings pair. But the chances of being right or left-handed are determined by the handedness of your parents is surprisingly consistent ratios. If your father was left-handed, but your mother was right-handed, you have a 17% chance of being born left-handed, while to righties will have a left-handed child only 10% of the time. Handedness seems to be determined by a roll of the dice, but the odds are set by your genes. All of this implies there is a reason that evolution has produced this small proportion of lefties and maintained it over the course of millennia. And while there have been several theories attempting to explain why handedness exists in the first place or why most people are right-handed, a recent mathematical model suggest that is their actual ratio reflects a balance between competitive and cooperative pressures on human evolution. 

According to researchers, the left-handedness is 1.5 times more in males than in females. Studies have revealed the fact that left-handed people constitute 15% of the population, whereas right handed people constitute 85% of the total population. It is also interesting to note that left handed people normally use their right side to perform all other important actions, including kicking a football and sighting through the lens of a camera. In the actions mentioned above they use their right foot and right eye respectively.

Exploring right-handers, we have to say that most people are right handed, and studies reveal that the majority of the people in the world are right handed. It is also believed that right handed people are more skilled than left handed people. This, however, may not be accurate all the time. The reality is that most products have been created for right handed people, making the lives of right handed people so much easier. Also, unlike left handed people, right handed people normally do not face the social stigma. This is because being right handed is considered as the common and normal thing. This conception is now changing. Even though, many claims that there are differences between Left handed people and right handed people, in terms of intelligence, life expectancy, skills and brain functioning most of these claims remain vague and difficult to generalize. Now let us summarize the difference in the following manner.

Are left-handed people smarter than right-handed people?

Dr. Oz, a professor and the cardiothoracic surgeon from Columbia University says, “Well, in a way, left-handed people are smarter because left-handed people can deal with more incoming information that doesn’t come in an organized way.” Dr. Oz says this is because of the way the brain develops when a baby is in its mother’s womb. “The left brain normally controls your right side, which is really powerful and it allows the other side, the right brain, to become an equal partner.”

Because left-handed people can use both sides of their brain more readily, Dr. Oz says, they can process information coming into their brain in different ways more easily. “That’s why athletes do so well when they’re left-handed. And there are a lot of presidents who have been left-handed, and there are a lot of folks who, because they can deal with a lot of complicated issues at once, work pretty effectively,” he says.

But Dr. Oz says although you may write with one hand, parts of the body on the other side  such as an eye can still be dominant. To determine which eye is dominant, Dr. Oz says to cut a pencil-sized hole in a piece of paper and hold it away from your face. Look through the hole at an object using only your right eye, then only your left. Dr. Oz says whichever eye you can still see the object through the hole with is your dominant eye.

Dr. Oz says many people are dominant with one eye and dominant with the opposite hand. “There are lots of different reasons which eye is dominant. If you were playing sports, it’s sort of helpful,” he says. “But folks actually use their different parts of their brain very differently, and it’s sort of cool to understand how it all comes up.”

A recent study suggests that lefties are better at complex math and creative problem solving than their right-handed counterparts. The link may be explained by the fact that left-handed people generally have a more developed right side of the brain.

Is being a left-handed person gives more benefits than challenges?

The benefits of being left-handed are clearest in activities involving an opponent, like combat or competitive sports. For example about 50% of top hitters in baseball have been left-handed. Why? Think of it as a surprise advantage. Because lefties are a minority to begin with, both right-handed and left-handed competitors will spend most of their time encontouring and practicing against righties. So when the two face each other, the left-hander will be better prepared against this right-handed opponent while the righty will be thrown off. When the world has been created primarily to suit the majority type of people, many might believe that lefties have to face a ton of problems. As true as that might be, there are a few benefits that only left-handed people are privy to.
1. A Pre-Ordained Creative Mindset

Biologically, the dominant hand reveals what side of the brain a person generally uses. And it is the opposite of the dominant hand. This makes lefties a prominently right-brained category of people, which are well-known for being creative and imaginative. This can be used to their advantage really well.

2. Ability to Multitask

Left-handed people have to learn a number of things in a different way quite early in life. This puts their brain in top-gear to be able to process numerous things quickly. The consequence of it is the ability of the brain to handle multiple things at once, making them a master of multitasking.

3. Enhanced Underwater Eyesight

As surprising as it might sound, left-handed people have an uncanny benefit of being able to see things clearly underwater. So for people who are usually closer to the shore or choose to pursue swimming as a sport, this can work pretty well to their advantage.

4. An Increased IQ Level

This, too, isn’t a generalized rule but based on statistics. On comparing the members of MENSA where everybody has a high IQ, nearly 20% of those members are left-handed. And since the percentage of left-handed children, in general, is low, your child has a higher chance of developing great IQ.

5. An Edge in Various Sports

Sports like cricket, basketball, tennis and many others have players that are predominantly right-handed. The presence of a left-handed opponent can throw their game off balance, and give your child an added advantage in it.

Challenges for Lefties

A left-handed child’s development process is not free from challenges. There are more of those than for other kids since these children have to adjust to a world not fully suitable to them.

• What seems absolutely normal to us can be an aberration for left-handed children as they struggle with everyday activities in our world. A simple day of doing the most basic stuff with our left hand can give you an understanding of how it feels.
• Doors are all hinged to suit right-handed people and so are their handles. This can result in your kid hitting their own feet with the door and hurting themselves repeatedly.
• Scissors might look like there are just two sections to hold it, but those, too, are made for right-handed people. The left-handed child might require a scissor made specifically for them that can let them see what they are cutting.
• Most tables in the school have drawers and compartments on the right, making it a problem for left-handed students.
• Notebooks, too, have a binding on the left side, which poses a unique issue for such kids.
• Left-handed children end up being knocked in their chest by the elbows of right-handed people when they sit next to them. However, they soon learn to sit on the left edge of a table and avoid problems.
• Default settings of a computer mouse are meant for right-handed people. This can be easily corrected by switching the keys in the control panel.
• A simple activity like tying your shoes or buttoning a shirt can be quite difficult when it is being taught by a right-handed person.

Research

            Also, we have made a special research. We have asked 804 students in our school. The survey was anonymous and it included the following questions:

1. Who are you: right-handed or left-handed?
2. How do you study at school? Are you an excellent/ good/not so good student?
3. What is your hobby?
4. Can you write both hands?
5. What benefits have left-handed people got?
6. What is the most difficult being a leftie?

38 students use their left hands as the dominant hand and it is 4,7 %  of the total (appendix3 ).

Furthermore, we have found out that all of them do their best at studying (appendix 4), extra-curricular activities and hobbies (appendix 5). However, no one can use both hands simultaneously in proper ways.

The benefits of being left-handed are clearest in competitive sport.

The most difficult things being lefties are all the tools (scissors, pens, the guitar etc.) are made for righties, people think that you do not know the etiquette rules in a café or a restaurant and our parents have to spend more money on extra tools (appendix 1).

The senior students say that they feel unique because they know that there are only about 15% of population in the world who are lefters (appendix 1).

Conclusion

In a purely cooperative world, there would be absolutely no left-handed people. Then again, we do not live in a purely cooperative world either, so a healthy number of left-handed people continue to elude the evolutionary filter and are born against the odds.

In our work we tried to learn as much as possible about the difference and uniqueness of the left-handed people and we found out that there are some benefits being lefty such as a pre-ordained creative mindset, ability to multitask, enhanced underwater eyesight, an increased IQ level, an edge in various sports.

Overall, handedness — is as much as it offers insight into an individual's cerebral and bodily abilities, tendencies and deficits — is just one of many elements in a complicated picture.

So, we have come to conclusion that if we consider the ratio of left-handed people to right-handed people, it gives us some fascinating insights into human history. The existence of a small but stable minority of left-handed people suggests an equilibrium that comes from both cooperative and competitive effects playing out simultaneously over time. The understanding of human interaction is, quite literally, in our hands!

References.

1. Chris McManus. April 14, 2012. Is It True That Left-Handed People Are Smarter Than Right-Handed People? Scientific American. Retrieved: 26 May 2013.
2. McManus, IC. “The history and geography of human handedness”. In: Language Lateralization and Psychosis, Iris E. C. Sommer and René S. Kahn. eds. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009.
3. "Three Myths and Three Facts About Left-Handers". Psychology Today. Posted Mar 23, 2013 
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

Appendix

Appendix 1

A FEW MORE FACTS ABOUT LEFT-HANDEDNESS:

• Studies have revealed the fact that left-handed people constitute 15% of the population, whereas right-handed people constitute 85% of the total population.
• Four out of five (80%) original Macintosh computer designers were left handed;
• Five out of the last seven (71%) US presidents were left handed (Barack Obama’s runner-up – senator John McCain – is also a lefty);
• One out of four (25%) Apollo astronauts – who were all selected e.g. by their high intelligence – was left handed;
• Mensa International  (the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world) claims that 20% of their members are left handed;
• A 1988 study reported: 16.9% of 266 United States Chess Federation players being left-handed or ambidextrous (included in the sample were e.g. 138 male Chess Masters, 18.1% was left-handed or ambidextrous).
• Another difference between the two is that the right-handed people normally do not face the social stigma, whereas the left-handed people have to deal with society of being left-handed in nature.
• The advantage of being left-handed is that, according to research the left-handed tend to think more quickly than the right-handed people. They are equipped with higher aptitude and higher I.Q. than the right-handed people. However, it is often difficult to generalize these findings.
• Some of the foreign famous lefthanders are: U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton ex-president Barack Obama and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Fidel Castro, Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe.
• Russian famous lefthanders are: Vladimir Dal, Leo Tolstoi, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Harry Kasparov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Anton Kamolov, Sergey Eizenshtain, Tina Kandelaki, Kseniya Sobchak, Maya Plisetskaya and much more.

Appendix 2

Comparison Chart

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5