NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS NEWSLETTER
Volume 20, Issue 3 (March, 2016)

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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.

In this issue:

1. What's New at Neuroscience for Kids
2. Neuroscience for Kids Site of the Month
3. Neuroscience for Kids Poetry Contest
4. Bloomin' Brains Summer Camp
5. New Paper
6. Media Alert
7. Treasure Trove of Brain Trivia
8. Support Neuroscience for Kids
9. How to Stop Your Subscription
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1. WHAT'S NEW AT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS

Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in February including:

A. February Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news202.html
B. New "In the News" page
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
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2. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS "SITE OF THE MONTH"

The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for March is "The Fundamentals of Neuroscience" at:

https://www.mcb80x.org/

How would you like to have a Harvard University neuroscience course right at your fingertips? And how about if the course was free? Such a resource is available at this month's "Site of the Month."

Click on "Enter Course" (upper right side) to begin. You may be asked to register (for free), but you can enter as a guest too. After you enter the course, you can navigate around the site using the menu on the left side. "Course Info" has information about the materials including frequently asked questions and the syllabus. To get to the actual course materials, click on "Lessons," then click on either "Course Map" or "List View." The Course Map provides a recommended sequence of pages and List View displays all of the materials on a single page.

The site is filled with videos, readings, interactive demonstrations, quizzes and exams to help you learn basic neuroscience. In my opinion, "The Fundamentals of Neuroscience" is one of the best examples of online neuroscience education available.
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3. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS POETRY CONTEST

Judging of the 2016 Neuroscience for Kids Poetry Contest has been completed and winners have been selected. A total of 478 poems from 20 states and 7 countries were received this year. The winning poems can be read online at:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/contest16.html

The poetry contest was so interesting to some students that they decided to get their whole school involved. Here is a note from Ms. Lauren Grace who works at Monarch Global Academy:

"Students at Monarch Global Academy in Glen Burnie, Maryland are hosting their own poetry contest, inspired by the Neuroscience for Kids Poetry Contest. A small group of students in grades K through 6, participated in the official contest. The students really enjoyed using the Neuroscience for Kids site to research the brain. They tapped into their creative sides to create poems they were proud of. They had so much fun that, after the official contest finished, students decided to host their own poetry contest.

"Students will be sharing the Neuroscience for Kids website with the rest of the school, as a tool to build their knowledge about the brain. Writers will then submit their poems to the student judges who will be looking for creativity and content related to the brain. We hope that our contest will inspire more kids to take an interest in neuroscience!"
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4. BLOOMIN' BRAINS SUMMER CAMP

Registration is now open to middle school students for the 2016 Bloomin' Brains Summer Camp. The camp will be held on the University of Washington campus in Seattle from August 1 to August 5, 2016. This will be the fourth year of the summer camp and I am sure students will enjoy the experience.

For more information about the camp and online registration, see:

http://www.neuroseeds.org/bloomin-brains-summer-camp

This camp is sponsored by my Sowing the Seeds of Neuroscience program.
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5. NEW PAPER

Are you interested in learning more about neural engineering? If so, my co-worker and I have published a new paper that reviews web sites with information about Brain Computer Interfaces. Our paper is titled "Brains-Computers-Machines: Neural Engineering in Science Classrooms" and was published recently in CBE-Life Science Education. You can read the paper online at: http://www.lifescied.org/content/15/1/fe1.full
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6. MEDIA ALERT

A. The March/April 2016 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND is now available with articles about diet and the brain, imagination and learning, autism and social media.

B. "Brain Damage" by Maiken Nedergaard and Steven A. Goldman (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, March, 2016) describes how the brain clears discarded proteins.

C. "The Visual World of Infants" by Russell D. Hamer and "Angiogenesis, Aging, and Alzheimer's Disease" by Charles T. Ambrose (AMERICAN SCIENTIST, March-April, 2016).

D. "The Alzheimer's Pill" by Alice Park is the cover story of the February 22-29, 2016, issue of TIME magazine. This issue also has the article titled "Why Schools are Struggling to Let Students Sleep In" by Alexandra Sifferlin.
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7. THE TREASURE TROVE OF BRAIN TRIVIA

A. In South Africa, dried and smoked vulture brains are thought to provide visions of the future. (Source: Royte, E., Bloody good, National Geographic, January, 2016.)

B. Approximately 34.8% of the adult population of the United States does not get enough sleep: these people get less than 7 hours of sleep each night. (Source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Prevalence of Healthy Sleep Duration among Adults - United States, 2014, February 19, 2016 / 65(6);137-141.

C. Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist John Eccles was knighted in 1958.

D. Greek philosopher Aristotle said: "Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech"

E. Approximately 50% of all people in the US over the age of 65 years have cataracts.
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8. SUPPORT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS

To ensure that Neuroscience for Kids stays available, we need your help. All contributions to Neuroscience for Kids are tax deductible (subject to IRS regulations). If you would like to donate to Neuroscience for Kids, please visit:

Help Neuroscience for Kids
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9. HOW TO STOP RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER

To remove yourself from this mailing list and stop your subscription to 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)