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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
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Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in April including:
A. April Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2304.html
B. Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for May is the "The Brain and Senses" at:
Learning about the senses is a great way to start exploring the brain. University of Manchester experimental psychologists Dr. Ellen Poliakoff and Dr. Luke Jones have created a fun web site about the senses that introduces young students to neuroscience. "The Brain and Senses" web site takes users on an interactive journey of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Each section of the site has an animated game that illustrates concepts and tests people for their knowledge about a specific sense. People can also play an online matching game, a word search game and a jigsaw puzzle with the brain and senses themes.
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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has announced its 2019 Brain Awareness Video Contest. If you want to participate, you should create an entertaining and educational video about a neuroscience concept or activity. Although anyone can participate, entries must be sponsored and submitted by a SfN member. You can find a SfN member on the SfN website ( https://www.brainfacts.org/For-Educators). Entries are due on June 13, 2019, so it's time to get started! More information about the contest is available at:
http://www.brainfacts.org/bavc
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As a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, I have work to do in three different locations. My office is located in the Center of Neurotechnology in the new Gates Center Building, my lab is located in the Department of Anesthesiology in the Health Sciences Building and my home department is in Bioengineering in the Foege Building. Also, the University of Washington is a huge place and I have to park my car a half a mile from my office. This means that I walk quite a bit every day.
I was curious to see exactly how much I walk in a typical week so I installed a pedometer app on my phone. The pedometer app measures the number of steps I take, the distance I walk and the amount of time I spend walking. For the five weekdays between April 22 and April 26, I tracked these data and found that I took an average of 8,331 steps/day and walked 3.5 miles/day.
Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining. In fact, I enjoy walking and like to take different routes when I walk from place to place. As an added bonus, walking gives me the brain boosting benefits of exercise. I highly suggest that you get outside and get some exercise too. Even take the long way if you have the time.
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Last month I completed a new BrainWorks TV episode. This new show is about sleep and the brain. During the show, we visit with sleep researchers in the UW School of Nursing and talk with a graduate student and high school teacher who were involved with a recent study where they tested the effects of starting school later. This study showed that changing the school start time from 7:50 am to 8:45 am allowed high school students to get more sleep (34 minutes) each night. The students' grades also improved when they were allowed to start school later. Here is a link to the paper:
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/12/eaau6200
In the new BrainWorks show, we talk about the benefits of sleep to our brain and body. We also used some TV magic including a green screen and a camera attached to a drone for some interesting special effects. When the program is released, it will be posted with the other BrainWorks episodes at:
http://www.washington.edu/video/brainworks/
In the meantime, enjoy this behind the scenes look into BrainWorks: Sleep and the Brain:
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A. "Does Intelligence Matter?" is the cover story in the May 2019 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND.
B. "Animals Use Brain Trick to See in the Dark" by Amber Dance (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, May, 2019).
C. "Bad Dreams are Good" by Ben Healy (THE ATLANTIC, April, 2019).
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A. Paul Greengard, an American neuroscientist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his work about signal transduction in the nervous system, passed away last month (April 13, 2019) at the age of 93 years old.
B. In Greek mythology, Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory.
C. May is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Awareness Month, Better Sleep Month, Health Vision Month, Huntington's Disease Awareness Month, Mental Health Month, and Stroke Awareness Month.
D. The long-eared jerboa, a small rodent, has the largest ears relative to its body size. This animal's ears are two-thirds as long as its body.
E. An American proverb states: "We need brain more than belly food."
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the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter, send e-mail to Dr. Eric H. Chudler
at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.Eric
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.
(e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu)
(URL:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)