Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
4
Year:
2018
Type of Events Held:
- Exhibit
- School Program
Target Audiences:
- General Public
- High School students(9-12)
- Middle school students(6-8)
Approximate Number of People Reached:
over 1000
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
Colorado State University celebrated BAW this year by providing educational outreach events at 3 different public schools and one museum in Fort Collins, Colorado. These included Rocky Mountain High School, Poudre High School, Lincoln Middle School and the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. For each event, 6 – 11 interactive stations were set-up prior to the event. Each station had an informative poster, an interactive component, and 1-2 volunteers to guide students or museum visitors through the information and activities. Approximately 130 volunteers from CSU were trained and helped staff stations that covered topics including various sensory systems, epilepsy, Traumatic Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, human and animal neuroanatomy, and the Drosophila neuromuscular junction. Consistent with previous years, both the human anatomy and comparative anatomy stations had real brain specimens that the students could handle and touch with gloves. The fruit fly station had temperature sensitive Shibere mutant Drosophila to demonstrate the effect of Dynamin malfunction on motor function, and the utility of fruit flies in research. Many of the stations at schools had brain erasers, pencils, and booklets provided by the Dana Foundation. These were given to students who asked questions or who answered questions raised by CSU volunteers after the presentation and activities. This year we impacted over 700 students ranging from 6th-12th grade in addition to approximately 300 museum visitors. The STEM center at CSU and the Department of Biomedical Sciences provided funding for the program. All events were successful with multiple positive comments from students, teachers, museum visitors and volunteers.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Advertisements
- Emails
- Posters/Flyers
- Website
- Other
Other Publicity Methods:
I announced events in CSU courses, and teachers contacted other teachers at their schools.
Resources
Of the Dana Foundation publications/resources distributed at your event(s), if any, please indicate the three most popular. Please choose up to three. If "other," please indicate below:
- BAW Stickers
- BAW Pencils
- Brain-shaped Erasers
What other downloadable materials would you like the Foundation to provide?
- Activities/Experiments
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- BAW Logos
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
BAW participation provides our CSU students with the opportunity to be involved in community outreach and teach younger students about the fun and fascinating aspects of neuroscience. BAW also increases awareness about the positive impact of CSU on the local community. Middle and high school students and museum visitors learn more about neuroscience and get to interact directly with CSU students and faculty.
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
There are multiple key aspects for planning a successful BAW event. Communication with the volunteers, schools, and museum needs to begin long before the events are scheduled and continue through the onsite program. It’s a good idea to have a back-up plan if a BAW volunteer is unable to make it for their staffing duties. In our case, I either fill in for the volunteer, or shut down that station until another volunteer is available. Specimens need to be handled carefully and I instruct each new participant group how to correctly handle specimens. Finally, I have detailed lists for each stage of the planning and execution to ensure that everything gets done correctly
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