Brain Awareness Week Youth Conference
In collaboration with the Conte Center, every year we host sixth-graders from Malden, MA for a one day Brain Awareness Week Youth Conference in March. The event has featured lectures by Dr. Kurt Fischer, Dr. Vincent De Luise, among others, and about ten ‘brain stations.’ These stations allow students to learn about and touch real human brains, experience optical illusions and learn how the brain creates them, and even look at their own brain waves.
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- Students are given the opportunity to model the lobes of the brain based on what they’ve learned from real brains.
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- A student looks at the caps used in brain scan research.
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- Students prepare to hold a human brain during a Brain Awareness Week event.
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- Students put on gloves and touch real animal and human brains!
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- Lauren Schiller (left), Brain Basics founder, with Heather Francis (center), 2014 head of Brain Basics, and Parizad Bilimoria, of the Conte Center, which funds and supports Brain Basics
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- Students look at stained tissues under the microscope.
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- Florian Engert discusses with the students where visual illusions occur: in the eyes or in the brain?
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- Students wear an EEG headset to look at their own brain activity.
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- Jen Holmes demonstrates expert neuron-making technique.
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- After viewing tissues under microscopes, students build neurons and neural networks of their own!
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- Students look at tissues and stains under microscopes to discover neurons and their structures.
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- Students look at tissues and stains under microscopes to discover neurons and their structures.
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- Students look at neurons under microscopes and draw what they see.
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- Florian Engert demonstrates visual illusions and discusses with the students how the brain and eyes collaborate to create the optical tricks.
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- Students wear goggles that distort their vision then throw beanbags with hilarious results!