Neuroscience For Kids

2018 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.

On March 6, 2018, approximately 750 students in grades 2-12 attended the University of Washington Brain Awareness Week Open House in the ballrooms of the Husky Union Building. This year the open house was supported by the Pacific Cascade Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, and the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.

As in past years, students started the Open House with a multimedia "Brain Assembly" with Dr. Eric Chudler. 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. The Neurobiology and Behavior Community Outreach Program had exhibits to test the senses and materials to build neuron models. The DO-IT program, UW Department of Otolaryngology, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, Epilepsy Foundation Northwest, Seattle Hydrocephalus Support Group, UW Department of Biological Structure, Pacific Science Center, UW Department of Psychology, UW Autism Center, UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, Synaptech, and Sowing the Seeds of Neuroscience all provided exhibits.

Scenes from the 2018 UW Brain Awareness Week Open House

baw photos
Thank you GIANTmicrobes for the neurons!

Teacher Comments:

The benefit is the human anatomy as it is difficult to give students that hands on experience. I also like the number of activities that they can explore on their own in a short period of time.
It is a perfect intro to our unit on Brain Science, generating many questions and thoughts that we can come back to in the following weeks. It gives students a chance to pursue their own curiosity in a safe environment with so many choices. Additionally being on campus raises student awareness of the University of Washington as both a place to visit and a place to attend school. Most students had never been there and were wide-eyed. What did I learn? I had some fascinating discussions about how the brain ages and what it looks like when it ages. Always I marvel at the power of the fragile spinal cord to transmit messages.
Such a powerful way to continue our learning on the brain! The kids loved the hands-on activities, and there was enough variety to draw every one of them in! It was great to see the spinal cord close up, and to see the dura. They loved the optical illusions and the STROOP effect.
We are currently studying the human body so this field trip ties in well with our current curriculum. It was a great trip and thought that it was very student friendly and age appropriate.
Brain Awareness Open House provided hands-on experiences to help my students learn or solidify their learning about the brain. In addition, the different exhibits shared how there are many different areas of study within the brain, and why it's important for us to know about the brain. This open house taught me and my students information about how the brain works, but also how we can use that information to learn even more. The students had fun while learning.

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