Utah Brain Awareness Week teaches students and public about the brain and brain health, is incorporated into international STEM outreach effort
(Salt Lake City) – Members of the public can touch a human brain or move a ball with their thoughts during Brain Awareness Day on Saturday, March 19 at The Leonardo Museum.
Brain Awareness Day activities will be presented at the museum free of charge from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the atrium of The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South in downtown Salt Lake City.
The hands-on activities – meant to educate the community about the wonders of the brain – will be led by Utah neuroscientists brought together by the Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience at the University of Utah.
Activities include Brain Ball, a game where electrodes are taped to participants' foreheads so they can move a ball with their thoughts; looking at fish with fluorescent brains through microscopes; comparing brains of various animals; and touching real human brains donated for educational purposes by body donors.
In addition to activities at The Leonardo, from March 14 through 18 volunteers will make presentations to over 1,000 school children in the greater Salt Lake City area as part of Brain Awareness Week. As in past years, students will gain a new appreciation for brain health by handling human brains and seeing first-hand how brains are damaged by injury or illness. School activities will stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle, including wearing helmets to prevent head injury.
News media are invited to cover any of eight presentations at area schools. They are not open to the public. (See the list of dates, times and locations at the end of this news release.)
This year for the first time Utah neuroscience students will be partnering with the American Association for the Care of Children and the Society of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS) to take Brain Awareness Week on the road to rural Nicaragua. During the week of March 19-26 they will be providing teachers with materials in Spanish and training them to teach their own students, and fellow teachers, about the brain with a goal of strengthening STEM education in the developing country.
Brain Awareness Week is part of a global campaign and is sponsored locally by the Neuroscience Initiative and the Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience at the University of Utah, and is supported by the Dana Foundation and Ripple.
Brain Awareness Week school events open to news media:
Tuesday, March 15, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.– Neil Armstrong Academy, 5194 Highbury Pkwy, West Valley City, 84120
Wednesday, March 16, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Jordan High School, 95 Beetdigger Blvd, Sandy, 84070
Thursday, March 17, 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. - Brighton High School, 2220 E Bengal Blvd, Cottonwood Heights, 84121
Friday, March 18, 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - Parley's Park Elementary School, 4600 Silver Springs Drive
Park City, UT 84098
Saturday, March 19, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - The Leonardo, 209 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, 84111