Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Brain Awareness Day at the Millcreek Mall brought 15 undergraduate psychology students and three faculty to an open forum in a mall on a busy Saturday. Our goals were to teach basic neuroscience to a range of ages and levels, to educate about brain health (particularly in adults), and to dispel myths about the brain and health. Candy neurons were a big hit with kids as always; our students helped kids build them while explaining structure and function. Kids also played a bean bag toss game to control our mascot, Brainy the Robot. They could also color brain hats, either using our anatomy guide, or getting creative. Older kids enjoyed our visual and auditory illusions, and our EMG demonstration from Backyard Brains. While some Edinboro students and faculty worked with kids, others discussed brain health and neuroscience research with parents and other adults, using posters, models, and giving away free materials. As always, we had a blast, and we think the public that we interacted with had a very positive experience!

Ours is a 4-year college, so one clear impact is the service learning and teambuilding it provided for our students, who have a much better familiarity with neuroscience, now that they’ve taught it. We gave away hundreds of goody bags with BAW material that hopefully remind the public of what they learned at our diverse exhibits. Unfortunately, the way our activity was set up makes assessment nearly impossible.

1. Take care of your team! We made sure to have food and water on hand, and be watchful for anyone making volunteers uncomfortable. 2. Have diverse activities available to present a range of perspectives. 3. It is important not just to teach what neuroscience is, but also what it isn’t. That is, if appropriate for the level of your audience, speak critically about common misperceptions (e.g., left vs right-brained people, role of neurotransmitters in health and happiness)