Cellular & Behavioral Neurobiology-University of Oklahoma-Norman

At each event, we engage visitors in the following activities, chosen to excite their interest and teach them fundamental concepts related to the nervous system: 1) see/touch a human brain 2) see/hear electricity from your own muscles (surface electromyograms from the biceps) 3) see how your brain changes in a minute (throwing balls after wearing prism goggles) 4) fool your brain about where your hand is using a proprioceptive illusion (muscle massager on triceps tendon with eyes closed) 5) see how fruit flies stop moving when their synapses temporarily stop functioning (temperature-sensitive mutation) 6) experience how smell is integrated with taste in the brain (judging jellybean flavor with eyes and nose closed). Some photos of these activities are at http://www.ou.edu/cbn/news-and-events/annual-events/. This year, we held our annual BAW event at Science Museum Oklahoma, now in collaboration with the Society for Neuroscience, Oklahoma Chapter, in April 13-14, 2018, with about 500 attendees. Our planned participation in the annual ScienceFest event did not occur because ScienceFest was unexpectedly canceled, due to the 2-week closure of Oklahoma schools (during the teacher walkout) limiting available curricular time. However, we participated in an additional outreach event for the Crooked Oak School District (in a low-income area), called a Learning Carnival, held for the first time on May 10. About 100 people participated in our activities.