Neuroscience For Kids

2009 brain awareness week open house

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) was celebrated on March 11, 2009, at the University of Washington when 716 elementary, middle and high school students attended an Open House. The Open House was supported by the Hope Heart Institute, Pacific Cascade Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials, UW Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the UW Student Activities & Union Facilities.

To start the Open House, students were led by Dr. Eric Chudler through an interactive, multimedia "Brain Assembly" to learn about the nervous system. We attempted to set a new world record for the largest model of an action potential; see the attempt:

Students then visited exhibits set up by University of Washington departments and other organizations. Students were connected to a transcranial Doppler machine to measure their brain blood flow (UW Dept. of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine). The UW Department of Biological Structure had a comparative neuroanatomy display and the Neurobiology and Behavior Program had an exhibit to test the senses and to learn about natural neurotoxins. The Pacific Science Center provided many exhibits that they bring out to schools. The DO-IT program, UW Department of Otolaryngology, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, Women's Bioethics Project, UW Genome Sciences, UW Biology, UW Chapter of Unite for Sight, Youth Take Heart and Seattle Hydrocephalus Support Group also provided exhibits.

Teacher Comments

Thank you VERY much for the great experience last Wednesday! Brain Awareness is easily our greatest field trip of the year (and we take a lot of them)! The exhibits were many and varied, and so interesting for the kids. Many of them mentioned your lecture, and specifically, your sense of humor as a presenter! I really appreciate you having us there. MANY thanks!
We had an awesome time! Thank you SO much for putting this on! Your presentation was fantastic. You're an excellent speaker, and kept the attention of my (rather young) kids the entire time. Very interactive, very informative, very educational, very fun! And the exhibits - WOW! What can I say? Super cool, super exciting. Everyone helping/volunteering there seemed to enjoy talking to and working with the kids.
Thank you and your associates for providing this wonderful educational opportunity. Our 5th graders were fascinated, investigating almost every exhibit. Our parent chaparones enjoyed it just as much and were very impressed with the breadth and quality of the demonstrations and information.
Thank you for all your hard work. Parents raved about this also! As one of my kids said when we entered the room....."I'm nervous about it, but I think I'll regret it the rest of my life if I don't hold a human brain!"
The Brain Awareness Open House was amazing! The students were absolutely so excited and engaged in learning about so many aspects of the brain. Your presentation was fascinating, and each of the activities was incredible. I know that you gave a lot of time and work to bring this day about. Many thanks to you and to each of the university students leading the activities!
Thank you so much for allowing our class to join in on the educational and enjoyable Brain Awareness Open House. Everything about the morning was extremely engaging. I greatly appreciated how your big people interacted with my little people. This was a most memorable experience.

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Brain Awareness Week 2008 | Brain Awareness Week 2007
Brain Awareness Week 2006 | Brain Awareness Week 2005
Brain Awareness Week 2004 | Brain Awareness Week 2003
Brain Awareness Week 2002 | Brain Awareness Week 2001
Brain Awareness Week 2000 | Brain Awareness Week 1999
Brain Awareness Week 1998