Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience
Brain Awareness Week
Brain Awareness Week is usually held during the third week in March. Did you know that 1 in 3 Americans will experience some form of mental disorder at some point in their lives? Major depression, for example, affects 5% of the population 18 years and older.
Graduate students and researchers from the Center for Structural & Functional Neuroscience at UM are interested in visiting 7th and 8th grade classrooms to share activities and information about the brain during Brain Awareness Week. Our curriculum is about 45 minutes long and includes very basic brain anatomy, brain safety demonstrations, discussions on drug use and the brain, a hands-on brain cell building activity, and lots of opportunities to interact with researchers. We will have several brains (sheep, rat, mice) available for the students to look at and touch as well.
Building model neurons (brain cells) with Mrs. Toller's 8th grade class at Washington Middle School.
Please contact Jen Geist, Program Coordinator at the Center for Neuroscience, if you are interested in having a B.A.W. Team visit your classroom. She can be reached at 243-4324 or by email at jennifer.geist@umontana.edu.
Tune in to hear CSFN investigator Dr. Katie George feature science experiments especially designed for kids on her Saturday morning "Science is Cool" radio program on Montana Public Radio.
To learn more about the brain and Brain Awareness Week, visit the Center for Neuroscience webpage at http://www.umt.edu/csfn, or the Society for Neuroscience web site at www.sfn.org.
