ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function (Brain Function CoE) is a nation-wide brain research centre (http://www.brainfunction.edu.au/). Our scientists look at how the brain works, and how it interacts with the world around us. We ran a neuroscience drawing competition during Brain Awareness Week 2017. We asked primary school children from around Australia to create an artwork inspired by completing the thought: “I use my brain to…”. We received nearly 400 entries showing very diverse views of how children think their brain works, including left vs. right brain functions, comparisons of brains to machines, depictions of its role in memory, senses, everyday activities, and even mental illness. Centre staff able to physically look at the drawings were invited to vote on their favourite ones to create a shortlist of 12-15 drawings per category. A total of 96 centre members and contributors, including most of the Advisory Board members and several Chief Investigators, cast their votes online to decide on first, second, and third place winners for each of the three categories. The 2017 winners’ drawings can be found at: http://www.brainfunction.edu.au/education-and-training/primary/artcomp2017/. Centre researchers will attend the first prize winners’ schools to award the prizes and speak about their work as neuroscientists. The images will be printed on canvas to display on a rotating basis around the Centre nodes in Australia. We are also considering displaying the images in a photobook in the near future.

Start early! Primary school curriculum seems to be decided very early in the year. Therefore, emailing should be done in December of the previous year, to ensure teachers are aware of this as a potential activity well before they do their lesson planning.