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 Neurotechnology, Epilepsy Foundation
Northwest, Seattle Hydrocephalus Support Group, UW Department of
Biological Structure, Pacific Science Center, UW Department of
Philosophy, UW Autism Center, UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center,
Synaptech, and UW Department of Bioengineering all provided
exhibits.
Scenes from the 2019 UW Brain Awareness Week Open House
Student and Teacher Comments:
Brain awareness week open house allowed kids of all ages to learn more
about the brain while being able to interact with objects around them. I
learned that my brain can adapt to somewhat odd situations pretty
easily.
This is a great way to expose kids to the field of brain research and
science in general. We feel very privileged to have our second grader
have this experience.
Wonderful experience, I'm so glad we got to be a part of it!
I liked the human brain hands on exhibit, the robotic arm which caused
nerves to fire in the brain and light up, hands on exhibit like
telephone, spiders under the influence of narcotics rubbings. Wish it
could go longer than just one day so we can come back!
Hands on learning great! Direct handling of human brain amazing!
Talking to the grad students at the booths was the best to learn from
them!
This open house is an outstanding way to expose kids to the wonders of
science and medicine. I've had students who never liked science become
extremely passionate, students go on to do research at home, and kids
take their learning much more serious at school because they now know
they are changing their brain!
Students were fully engaged in the presentation and were
disappointed when it ended as they were enjoying the optical illusions
immensely. In the exhibits, they loved all interactive sites - the
goggles for catching and the goggles for walking a straight line,
building blocks (2 people), xylophone (2 people) but most especially
being able to hold and inspect the brains and spinal cord. Personally I
liked the Alzheimer section and would have liked for someone to be
manning the Autism section. The birdsong people are always fascinating
to me and we have returned to school with many spider web rubbings of
spiders on drugs, another of my personal favorites.
It's an excellent opportunity for students to engage with people
involved in the field. It gets them out of the classroom to share what
they know, as well as learn something new, and be curious about many
things in the field of neuroscience.
Attending the brain awareness open house allowed the students, the
parents and myself to learn more about different areas of study or
research within the brain, in a hands-on experience. In the beginning of
the year, I teach about some of the different functions of the brain and
its importance in learning, however, this shows other areas of study
related to the brain. This also provides a chance for all to interact
with students or researchers who study the brain and share their
expertise.
We also especially loved the bird brain station and spent a lot of time
there. It was also great to be able to see and touch actual brains and
learn that we can buy sheep brains online and learn about them at home.
