Neuroscience For Kids

2012 brain awareness week open house

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a international effort started by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the Society for Neuroscience to promote the public and personal benefits of brain research. The official week for the next BAW is March 12-18, 2012, but any time is a good time to get involved.

BAW was celebrated on March 7, 2012, at the University of Washington when 600 students in grades 4-12 attended an Open House. The Open House was supported by the Pacific Cascade Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, and the Hope Heart Institute.

To start the Open House, students were led by Dr. Eric Chudler through an interactive, multimedia "Brain Assembly" to learn about the nervous system. The students learned about neurotransmission, compared the brains of different animals and played with some visual illusions.

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 Neurobiology and Behavior Community Outreach Program had exhibits to test the senses and materials to build neuron models. 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, Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, Department of Biology, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, Unite for Sight, Youth Take Heart program and Seattle Hydrocephalus Support Group also provided exhibits.

Favorite Exhibits

Planaria exhibit (stem cells)
Doppler brain blood flow
Comparative neuroanatomy display
Visual illusions
"Magic" water illusion
Face painting
Fly flight simulator
Prism goggles
Dr. Chudler's Brain "Assembly"
Auditory exhibits
Bird Songs
Mirror drawing
Brain hats/make-a-neuron

Teacher Comments

Thank you very much for putting on another amazing experience for all: students, parents, and teachers! I was extremely impressed by this year's Open House. I thought that all of the stations were extremely well planned and executed. The students cannot stop talking about how awesome it was!
We loved Brain Awareness Week! My kids were in awe of all that they saw and learned. Pretty amazing stuff. The thing that touched my heart about our visit to BAW was one of my students told me she wanted to be a scientist. She loved everything! She never gets excited about anything and the fact that she wants to be a scientist is fantastic. Another one of my students brought a book of illusions he had to school on Friday and shared them with the class. Very cool.
Our students had a blast during Brain Awareness Week Open House. Your event was amazing. I cannot believe how many engaging hands-on booths there were. The kids were upset they had to leave after spending two hours at the event! The students that got to go felt privileged and when they returned they prepared an interactive presentation for their classmates.
Thank you again for inviting us. I have recommended that our 6th grade teachers apply for your event next year. It was so much fun!
My kids' eyes were opened by the things they saw. When we talked about their favorite things were I could see a spark in their eyes that I feel will move them to learn more. I didn't get a chance to teach anything before we came due to time and all the curriculum we have to cover in 5th grade. I plan to use your websites etc to show my kids more of what they might of missed etc. and to continue their learning.
Hearing the experts in various aspects was wonderful. As I told my class, I am no expert, not even close, in the brain so this was their chance to interact with folks who do have expertise areas revolving around neuroscience.
My students were able to make real connections between what they learned in school and how scientists work in this field as a career. This is a great opportunity for the kids. This open house let the children have hands-on experience that is essential for concrete minds. This event made learning about the brain fun and understandable.
Huge benefits!! Lots of learning for all our fifth grade students whether they knew a little or a lot to begin with. The 'assembly' followed by the interactive/exploratory format works well.
My students were so excited they actually came back the next morning with things they had written about it without my even having assigned that!
A very important benefit is the hands-on component of each station and presentation. I think the students came away with not only a better understanding of the brain, but also with more excitement about science.

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