Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
4
Year:
2022
Type of Events Held:
- School Program
Target Audiences:
- Elementary school students (1-5)
- Other
- Other: pre-K
Approximate Number of People Reached:
272
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
My Neuroscience students and I partnered with 9 different teachers at 3 local schools to give 13 brain presentations to mostly 4th-5th grades and 1 pre-K class. Each presentation involved a PowerPoint presentations and various hands-on activities. The activities included 1) jelly bean experiment with taste and smell 2) use of prism goggles and vision distortion 3) use of an ‘ear switching’ device for understanding binaural cues 4) taste testing with miracle berries 5) comparing animal brains in plastimounts 6) egg demo for showing brain damage and the importance of helmets and 7) touching a horse and pig brain. Some classes were limited in time and could not complete all activities. All classes loved the presentations. The neuroscience college students did a great job with their presentations and engaging the classes. Overall the students favorite activities were the prism goggles and touching the horse and pig brains. These classroom visits definitely achieved my goals of 1)getting kids excited about science and especially neuroscience; 2)teaching my students how to share their knowledge at a level accessible to children and non-scientists; and 3) creating community links between the local schools and the college.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Emails
Which of These Publicity Methods Was The Most Successful?
Resources
What other downloadable materials would you like the Foundation to provide?
- New Fact Sheets
- New Lesson Plans
- Activities/Experiments
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- Brain Awareness Week Logos
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
Outcomes/Benefits:
1) My neuroscience students learned to give presentations to children. Most of my students were very nervous about the prospect but they did great. They gained a strong sense of knowledge and purpose through the experience.
2) The elementary students gained a curiosity about the brain. They learned how to protect their brains, feed their brains, help their brains learn, and that their brains are not fully mature yet.
3) Community links were fostered.
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
When going to schools in the future, I plan to stay in one room (like the library) and have the classes come to me/my students. It was difficult to coordinate moving around the schools with all of my supplies and setting everything up. My students also sometimes got lost in the schools.
In the future, I will also have teachers sign up for time slots within a certain day instead of trying to coordinate my schedule, their schedules, and my students schedules all at once. It was very chaotic.
Additionally, I need a cart to move all my supplies.
