University of Connecticut

I held an evening workshop through a community group called Big Friends. This group consists of roughly 20-25 elementary and middle school-aged children, who are each paired with a high school or college-aged individual to aid in mentoring and assistance with weekly activities. I organized four distinct stations, which the children rotated through (approximately 8-10 minutes at each station). 1. BAW-Published Mind Boggling workbooks were provided (two versions; one more fact-based, and the other activity-based). Children worked on these with colored pencils, receiving help from mentors. Each child brought home a copy of each workbook. 2. Tower of Hanoi – each child got a chance to figure out this game, and was awarded a BAW pencil and brain eraser if they could guess which brain lobe they were using to complete the puzzle. 3. Hot-Potato Brain – two halves of the brain were passed around in a circle until one child ended up with both halves. That child would have to share a fact about the brain, and was given a BAW sticker for participation. Hot potato resumed after a fact was shared. 4. Play-Doh brain – 6 colors were provided for the children to create a “map” of a mid-saggital representation of the brain. Four lobes, cerebellum, and brainstem were created with play-doh. Brain molds were also provided for students to create mini 3-D brains.

Everyone really enjoyed the materials that were distributed (provided by Dana Alliance), as well as the activities that were implemented at the stations. The supervisors and mentors of the group asked us to come back whenever we would like!