Working as a counselor at a Boy Scouts summer camp, senior Ricky Kirkpatrick felt disappointed in himself as he presented the scouts with information for ways to earn their badges.

“[The other counselors were] coming up with really cool ways to teach information to the scouts,” said Kirkpatrick. “People would make acronyms with different words or do goofy things to teach. What I did was I just basically followed the book. And I thought I was very dry. … I just didn’t think I really found a creative way to teach information.”

Kirkpatrick said he attributes his lack of  “out of the box” thinking skills to his preference for the left side of his brain.

The brain consists of two cerebral hemispheres, the left and the  right. Although the two are in constant communication, brain studies teacher Mike Piskel said throughout our life each side gradually develops to specialize in different things.

“[The left brain] becomes more attuned to logical things, language and it looks for order and organization,” Piskel said.

According to Ricky’s father Bill Kirkpatrick, he characterizes his son as a left brained individual, particularly because Ricky has always approached things with logic and thoughtful analysis.

“He likes things that make sense,” said Bill Kirkpatrick. “He looks for the logic in things and doesn’t look for the gray areas so much.”

Throughout high school, Ricky said he has seen these logical reasoning skills improve and help him excel in math and science courses.

“I’m having a great time in chemistry this year,” said Ricky. “And I think it’s really coming to me because I get the information. It’s very logical in how different atoms and molecules interact with each other. You know clear cut what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong and what you can improve on.”

According to Piskel, left brain preference students tend to favor or perform better in math and science courses than right brain preference students.

Bill Kirkpatrick said he has watched his son’s love for math and science evolve. At a young age, when his friends were looking through the pictures in Highlights magazine, Ricky was reading Mathmania.

Despite his abilities in math and science, Ricky said he must work harder to do well in his humanities classes.

“I’m definitely worse at humanities courses,” said Ricky. “For example, in English, I have trouble deciphering meaning from books because I think more in x equals y terms and more literal than if something represents something.”

However, Bill Kirkpatrick said he has seen how his son’s time at Glenbrook North has helped him get better at humanities.

“[Ricky’s performance in humanities courses is] definitely something that has improved over the last three years,” said Bill Kirkpatrick. “A lot of that is his drive to get it right. And part of that is really good teachers.”