Drexel University(1)

We hosted three major events throughout brain awareness week, including: (1) Brain Food – a community-based outreach event wherein attendees were taught about healthy habits that promote cognition and were provide a meal of healthy foods. (2) A Brain Film Festival, which included free screenings of Limitless and Inside Out following by a chance for audience members to ask questions of experts in psychology about the merit of the film and how its theme relate to current research in the field. (3) A week-long Neuromyths display at our own Hagerty Library, meant to provide a chance for studying students to engage in learning about common brain facts and fiction related to phrenology, changes in the brain across the lifespan, and differences between male and female brain. These, in conjunction with smaller events throughout the week, were well received by our intended audiences. We had many participants in a majority of our events and ultimately achieved our goal of informing individuals of the current trends in brain science and teaching evidence-based techniques and habits for maintaining cognitive performance.

BAW participation benefited our organization because we have succeeded in reaching out to members of our University community as well as the Philadelphia community more broadly. In addition, members of the community have received information both about current trends in psychology and neuropsychology, an understanding of some basic brain facts, and have learned new ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to promote brain health.

We found that advertising was a huge limiting factor, and feel that this should get out early. In addition, community members were more difficult to reach that University members, so this may require an additional level of advertisement (i.e., reaching local radio or TV stations, doing additional outreach events, etc.).