[ To become involved in Brain Awareness Outreach,
please contact Cecilia M. Fox at cfox@moravian.edu ]

2009 Brain Awareness Week in the Lehigh Valley
(March 16-21, 2009)

Flyer 1 (*.pdf) | Flyer 2 (*.pdf) 

For the first time, Lehigh Valley Society for Neuroscience Chapter faculty (and their students) from Moravian College, Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College, Lafayette College and Lehigh University collaborated in offering a strong Brain Awareness Week series of events.

Each institution hosted/participated in events that were open to the public for each day of Brain Awareness Week. Events were publicized by the colleges as well as the local media.

CLICK ON A DAY BELOW TO SEE THE EVENTS SCHEDULED

Brain Awareness Day:
A Service Learning Experience in Neuroscience

On Saturday, March 21, 2009, Brain Awareness Day was held at the DaVinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology (Allentown, PA).  This six hour program promoted public awareness of the functions of the central nervous system and recent advances in neuroscience research. We provided “hands-on” neuroscience activities for children (K-8th grade) and general brain research information for their families.  Students studying Neuroscience from the participating colleges in the Lehigh Valley joined their professors (Cecilia Fox and Sarah Johnson of Moravian College, Jeremy Teissere of Muhlenberg College and Audrey Ettinger of Cedar Crest College) in the implementation of the activities. Elementary and middle school teachers in the Lehigh Valley were invited to participate in the day’s activities.  Flyers were also electronically sent to local elementary schools promoting Brain Awareness Day. Packets of information containing Brain Awareness Week lesson plans were made available for the teachers to share in their science classroom experience.

Significance:
It is becoming evident that service learning is a critical component of engaging students in higher education. By offering neuroscience undergraduate students the opportunity to share their knowledge of the central nervous system and benefits of brain research with the general public, Brain Awareness Outreach has the potential to increase student personal development in areas such as personal identity, social responsibility, communication skills and leadership abilities. The involvement of students from the various local colleges developed a sense of collaboration which in turn, served to enhance the overall experience. Furthermore, this service learning program provided an opportunity for the community to improve public confidence in neuroscience as students and faculty explained the benefits of brain and spinal cord research.

Program Design:
Neuroscience activities for several learning workstations were designed for Brain Awareness Day. By explaining the Neuroscience behind each activity, the students provided valuable information as they linked education to the benefits of brain research. Children and their families had an opportunity to participate in the following activities:

Do You See What I See? The Visual System from Top to Bottom

Let’s Map Out Your Brain! (Neuroanatomy on Swim Caps)

Cow Brains and Sheep Brains and Rat Brains, Oh My! (Comparative Neuroanatomy)

Let’s Check Out Your Brain Waves! (EEG Testing)

Can You Catch a Liar? (Aka “galvanic responses”)

Now You See It, Now You Don’t – Optical Illusions

Melt Your Brains! - Creative art project depicting lobes of the brain

Where Is My Nose? - Proprioception: The Secret Sixth Sense

Fool Your Eyes!

What Do You Remember?

Hearing and Seeing and Touching, Oh My!

Norbit the Neuron – Building Pipe Cleaner Neurons

Simpler activities for smaller children were also provided:
Coloring sheets of the nervous system and neuron face painting!

An information station for the general public contained resource materials supplied by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (recent neuroscience advances, brain facts, neurodegenerative disease info.). Children received a participation certificate, bag of gummi brains, brain eraser and Brain Awareness Week stickers.

Brain Awareness Week:

During BAW, the Neuroscience and Psychology faculty and students from Moravian, Muhlenberg, Cedar Crest and Lafayette colleges offered hands-on neuroscience activities for school programs at the DaVinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology in Allentown, PA.   Activities such as Build a Neuron, Comparative Brain Anatomy, Stroop Effect, What’s That Smell?, Memory Testing, etc were offered for the morning programs.  This event was partially funded by a SfN Chapter Grant that was approved in March 2009.

Amazing Brain Workshop:

In this pilot program, students from Moravian College engaged in a neuroscience service learning program for second grade students at Lehigh Valley Academy.   Similar activities listed above were offered in this program and teachers received neuroscience related education materials to implement in their classroom experience.