Neuroscience For Kids

2011 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 1, 2011, 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, University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials, and the UW Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior.

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 learn 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, Western Washington University Department of Psychology, Department UW Chapter of Unite for Sight, UW Department of Biology, Youth Take Heart program and Seattle Hydrocephalus Support Group also provided exhibits.

Scenes from the Open House

Favorite Exhibits

Planaria exhibit (stem cells)
Peripheral vision presentation
Doppler brain blood flow
Comparative neuroanatomy display
Spinner question (with slinky prize)
Visual illusions
"Magic" water illusion
Face painting

Student Comments

I had a great time at the Brain Awareness Day Exhibition at the MOHAI Museum! There was so much to do, and all the activities were very engrossing.
I had a great time at the Brain Awareness Day Exhibit, and I really appreciate all of the hard work that you must have put into it. It was so much fun, and there was so much to see, and I can't thank you enough.

Teacher Comments

Back at school this morning we had time to share what we learned or enjoyed, and students came up with long lists in both categories. Actually the lists overlapped. What a fun way to experience learning. We all greatly appreciate your work and the efforts of the many people involved in putting this together. I'm excited to pursue the contacts I made for getting more science in our classroom (after the MSP!). More than a few students are considering careers in science thanks to the seeds planted by BAW.
The exhibits, students, doctors, and staff were all extremely informative and exciting! The students, chaperones, and I had a lovely afternoon of learning.
The open house really heightened student awareness about the brain, what it can do, and how we use our brains.
Students were exposed to ways of thinking and ideas to ponder that wouldn't generally come up in our classroom. They were excited about the hands-on activities and many are talking about careers in science.
As an educator I was excited to make connections with resources in the sciences that I didn't know existed. I now know who to contact about borrowing activity kits that teach about healthy hearts and who to call about having a guest scientist speaker come to our class.
My students enjoyed this experience. They usually end up leaving with more confidence in understanding the brain and more questions and curiosity.
The hands-on component of all of the demonstrations were extremely beneficial for the students. These types of exhibits are not only informative, but they piqued the curiosity of the students in unparalleled ways.
The kids LOVED the hands-on activities!! It was the perfect opening activity to our unit on the human body - starting, of course, with the brain and nervous system!
Thank you for offering this trip as a free trip! Schools are having a hard time finding educational field trips these days that are affordable and this was a terrific opportunity in a financial sense and in an academic sense!
Having to pay only for our bus transportation was a huge plus for our fifth graders since many of our families need scholarships for field trips.
I was thoroughly impressed by the students, volunteers, and doctors who lead each station. Each individual was informative and helpful in kid-friendly ways.
Thank you very much for this unique, important, and awesome trip!
A day very well-spent! My kids unanimously voted that I apply to take my class again next year! I already have it in my notes for next year! The smiles on their faces were priceless! Every one of them could tell me two things they learned - some could have told me much more than that!

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