Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
1
Year:
2019
Type of Events Held:
- Exhibit
Target Audiences:
- Elementary school students(1-5)
- General Public
- High School students(9-12)
- Middle school students(6-8)
- University students
Approximate Number of People Reached:
533
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
Brain Day in Detroit is an annual event held for over 20 years. We partner with the Michigan Science Center (http://www.mi-sci.org/), a hands-on educational center located in Detroit. Brain Day in Detroit is held in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week; this years event was held on March 16, 2019. A total of 533 members of the public attended the event. 14 interactive stations were placed throughout the science center, each presented by a different research group in the Detroit neuroscience community. These displays were staffed with over 100 volunteers, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and post-docs, which serves to bring a diverse neuroscience community together. Activities included a human brain display, exhibits on brain development and aging, activities focused on drug safety and addiction, activities demonstrating sensory function and plasticity, and more! Disposable supplies are donated to the individual activity groups from their home units. We received a donation of “Miracle Berry” tablets for our taste exhibit from there manufacturer of this product (mBerry). Most of the “take-aways” distributed at the event are provided by the DANA foundation. With the diversity of our different activities, we can hand out these materials in a thematic way at our different stations; for example the material on aging is distributed at our Lifespan Neuroscience activities, and “Mindboggelers” and other activities and items for kids are distributed in our arts and crafts area. We distribute buttons and stickers at our greeting table at the entrance of the science center so that patrons can wear their stickers and buttons proudly throughout the day.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Emails
- 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:
- BAW Stickers
- The Mindboggling Workbook
- Brain-shaped Erasers
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- BAW Logos
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
Our Neuroscience community is distributed across the city. This is one of the few occasions in which we all come together, and certainly the most fun occasion. It allows students and faculty to get acquainted and make connections in an informal setting.
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
We moved to a distributed model of organization a few years ago, each research group plans their own activities and secures their own materials; a central administrator (me) works as a liaison with the Science Center to orange space and set up tables etc. With so many stations (14 to 16 per year) this has become an efficient system.
Did/do you like our Facebook page?
Yes
