Brain Awareness Week at UF, which runs next week, aims to ignite conversation and educate the younger generation about the brain’s functions.
UF’s McKnight Brain Institute and the North Central Florida chapter of the Society for Neuroscience will sponsor the annual Brain Awareness Week, which will feature interactive activities geared toward educating local children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Miranda Schwabe, external vice president of the UF Neuroscience Club, wrote in a message that this year, the society plans to speak to 19 Alachua County schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels, with an expected reach of almost 3,000 students.
Schwabe, a 19-year-old UF behavioral and cognitive neuroscience sophomore, said the brain is the most complex structure in the body, and there is much to be discovered.
Schwabe plans to participate for her second year and will assist in “brain art” exercises to teach the kids about dissection, neuroscience, brain anatomy and sensory functions.
Brittany Butler, the event’s outreach coordinator and a graduate research assistant in interdisciplinary neuroscience, said the event will debunk myths about the brain and show the bigger picture of its functions.
“It teaches them how little things like drug abuse or not wearing your helmet can influence how you function day to day,” Butler said.
The week also benefits the scientists, who are forced to discuss their knowledge in a way that is easy to understand, she said.
“Fresh minds are very important in neuroscience,” Butler said. “You need fresh ideas to find new ways to navigate what we don’t know about neuroscience and disease.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/11/2015 under the headline “Brain Awareness Week to give county students food for thought”]
March 12: Interactive lecture, “Brain Myths: Fact or Fiction,” will reveal the truth about common myths about the brain from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention.
March 16-20: Brain Awareness Week activities in Alachua County schools include a visit from research assistants and postdoctoral fellows from the UF College of Medicine to teach about brain physiology and functions. Middle school and high school students will dissect sheep brains.
March 20: Keynote speech by David Sweatt, director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Research Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Epigenetic Mechanisms in Memory Formation” will start at 2:45 p.m. in the DeWeese Auditorium at UF’s McKnight Brain Institute.
Information from UF Health press release
