Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
19
Year:
2015
Type of Events Held:
- Conference/Forum
- Exhibit
- Lab Tour
- Lecture/ Briefing
- Press Briefing
- Symposium
Target Audiences:
- Elementary school students(1-5)
- High School students(9-12)
- Middle school students(6-8)
- Patients & Caregivers
- University students
Approximate Number of People Reached:
400
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
The objectives of our program were to reach the general population and to include in our activities people of different academic backgrounds.Prior to BAW, in the radio show “Convergencias y divergencias” in Magnetica FM XHAWD 107.1 a redio station that makes public awareness of science, we talked abou the importance of neuroscience and BAW. We also had a poster session open to the pubic about brain-computer interfaces, presented by the students of biophysics and biomedical engineering, every day we had lab tours for high school and middle school students, We had activities for elementary school students (puzzles, games, brain hats, ask a neuroscientist) lectures for university students (given by university professors), general public, high school and middle school students (given by the students of our lab, and students from other labs with different background, like a nutritionist and a psychologist) and a lecture about mental health given by a psychiatrist. The titles of our lectures were: “The brain in love”, “food and the brain”, “intelligence and mental health”, “myths and facts about the brain”, “sweet, salty, umami?”, “the brain studies itself”, “what happens when your brain gets sick?”, “the brain is the boss”, “sports and the brain”,”how does the brain perceives pain?”, “is there a clock in the brain?”,”nanotechnology and the treatment of cerebral cancer”,”who protects your brain?”,”arsenic and neurotoxicity”, “research in neuroscience”
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Calendar Listings (newspapers, radio, television)
- Emails
- Posters/Flyers
- Press Release/Media Advisory
- Social Media
Which of These Publicity Methods Was The Most Successful?
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:
- Q&A: Answering Your Questions About Brain Research
What downloadable materials from the Foundation did you use for your events?
- Puzzles: BAW Favorites
- Q&A: Answering Your Questions About Brain Research Downloads
What other downloadable materials would you like the Foundation to provide?
- Activities/Experiments
- New Puzzles/Games
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- BAW Poster
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
Our lab is located in a physics institute that hired a few biologist, and the event helped us to explain our work to the physicist and physics students, it also helped to create a network between different labs in our university, undergrad students could talk with some professors and some of that students are now participating in some research projects with those professors, also some high school students are now interested in studying biology.
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
Invite high school students and let them ask all that they want to know, high school teachers in Mexico almos never talk to them about research as a possible career. Invite health care professionals to talk about mental health, it is still taboo to talk about mental health and people have many questions that are difficult to ask in other circumstances.
Did/do you like our Facebook page?
Yes
Was the information provided on Facebook useful?
It could be helpful to have some fun,educative and colourful videos about the brain, like Hank Green Crash Course kind of videos.
