Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
1
Year:
2022
Type of Events Held:
- Other
- Workshop
- Other: interactive educational activities
Target Audiences:
- Elementary school students (1-5)
- General Public
- High school students (9-12)
- Middle school students (6-8)
Approximate Number of People Reached:
60
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
We used the brain awareness event as a platform to connect the local rural community with the future doctors of Louisiana in order to build a bridge of trust and open communication. We had structured educational activities based on each brain lobe that used neuropsychology tests adapted for kids (parents participated too), focused on the function of each lobe. We had a visual search for the Occipital lobe; a helmet building activity to protect the Frontal lobe & personality in the brain, taught through history of Phineas Gage; memory games and smell and memory for the Temporal lobe taught through HM; the Stroop and attention tests for Parietal lobe integrating all functions.
In addition, for the younger participants, we had an area where kids would be able to go to the Build a Brain, Brain Games, and Affirmation stations to complete a maze through the brain, build a brain from play dough, take selfies at the affirmation station, and put together jigsaw puzzles in the shape of a brain.
Parents were able to stay with their kids and participate, but also we had a Food for Thought station, where we provided information on foods for a healthy brain and an Alexa Shopping List as a fridge magnet.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Advertisements
- Calendar Listings (newspapers, radio, television)
- Emails
- Website
- Social Media
Which of These Publicity Methods Was The Most Successful?
Resources
What downloadable materials from the Foundation did you use for your events?
- Certificate of Participation
- Puzzles: Grades 3-5
- Puzzles: Grades 6-8
- Puzzles: Grades 9-12
- Truth or Myth Flash Cards
What other downloadable materials would you like the Foundation to provide?
- New Fact Sheets
- Activities/Experiments
- New Puzzles/Games
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- Brain Awareness Week Logos
- Brain Awareness Week Facebook Cover Image
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
We were able to connect the local rural religious community with the future doctors of Louisiana in order to build a bridge of trust that we felt was lacking during the Covid pandemic. This event was an ice breaker in rebuilding the relationship between medical professionals with our community members who may often be isolated from mainstream science/medicine.
We were also happy to see how excited kids and parents were about learning brain science through this interactive innovative approach.
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
We would advertise more broadly in the future, especially not through social media, but through more traditional means of flyers and postings.
