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STUDENTS USE THEIR BRAIN AT EIGHTH ANNUAL "BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK"
 | Dennis Twombly, Ph.D., from National Institute
of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), lights
up an
oversized model of a brain to demonstrate
how alcohol slows down mental functions in
“The Drunken Brain Exhibit.”
Copyright © 2007,
Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved.
Photos taken by Joe Shymanski.
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The National Museum of Health and Medicine hosted its eighth annual Brain Awareness Week March 12-16, 2007. More than 800 middle- and high-school students from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. were invited to learn about the brain and participate in hands-on activities with neuroscientists. Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and his office also issued a proclamation recognizing March 12-18 as Brain Awareness Week in the district.
Six stations were designed and operated by collaborating institutions called Partners-in-Education. This year’s Partners-in-Education included the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, Rutgers University, the National Institutes of Health, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
Each organization was represented by a neuroscientist or researcher who conducted a station, highlighting an aspect of the brain allowing new insights. The program is designed to link scientists, students, clinicians, journalists and educators together with the goal of bringing information to the public about the brain and brain science.
 | Senior Lindsay Colliton of
Langley High School in
McLean, Va. finds it hard to toss
a ball with
her partner while
wearing goggles that simulate
alcohol intoxication.
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“This is a wonderful program that gives the students an opportunity to meet scientists with a unique perspective, and distinct and beneficial information about the brain,” said Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum’s director.
The program lasted for an entire week with participants rotating through six stations that changed each day, and demonstrated different functions, influences on and disorders of the brain.
Monday was hosted by Georgetown University and George Washington University, and focused on brain injury, cranial nerves, parts of the brain and its functions. Eddie Billingslea, MS from Georgetown’s department of psychology hosted the station “Altered Reality” where students learned about the effects of alcohol on the brain and visual perception. After wearing goggles that simulate alcohol intoxication and participating in various activities that exercised motor skills, senior Mike Ellison of Langley High School in McLean, Va. asked, “Do you have some Advil?”
 | Luke Kopezsky, a fifth-
grader at Maret School in
Washington, D.C., looks
through the microscope at
a slide of a brain during
Howard University’s presen-
tation“The Important Stuff in
Your Brain.”
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Tuesday’s activities were hosted by Howard University and highlighted memory, the senses and brain disease. Malcolm Marfam, a research assistant, hosted the station “The Important Stuff in Your Brain,” where he engaged students to think about how memory is a function of the brain. Marfam began by asking a series of questions including, “What do you need a brain for?” Taylor Williamson of Maret School in Washington, D.C. responded, “To move, think, learn and understand.”
Wednesday and Thursday were hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH was represented by the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). These stations were designed to highlight different brain diseases that NIH studies including addiction, mental health and stroke. “The Drunken Brain Exhibit” demonstrated how alcohol slows down mental functions by using an oversized model of a brain, complete with flashing lights to show the neurons. Students also watched a video of a lab experiment testing the results on lab rats.
 | Students from Nysmith School in
Herndon, Va. were among those
who received free brain safety
helmets from
Walter Reed Army
Medical Center’s Defense and
Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC)
and the Lynn A. Chiaverotti Memorial
Fund on Friday.
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Friday’s activities were presented by the Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), the Army Audiology and Speech Clinic, and Rutgers University. Students first learned how sound and hearing works at “Your Hearing – A Pathway to the Brain” through demonstrations of how the ear localizes sound. Students were also taught the importance of protecting their hearing, and what levels of sound are safe to be around. DVBIC in conjunction with the Lynn A. Chiaverotti Memorial Fund, a group dedicated to the prevention of traumatic brain injury, also provided students on Friday with free brain safety helmets decorated with brain-like designs.
 | “Brain Collector” Archie Fobbs,
the museum’s neuroanatomical
collections manager, assists a
student who has the opportunity
to hold a real human brain during
Brain Awareness Week at the
museum.
Copyright © 2007,
Society for Neuroscience. All
rights reserved. Photos taken by
Joe Shymanski.
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The museum hosted a station each day of the program called “The Brain Collector” where the museum’s neuroanatomical collections manager Archie Fobbs handed out latex gloves to participants so they could hold a real human brain. As they held it, Fobbs pointed out the different parts of the brain, asking students what each was responsible for. He also showed students slides of real brains documenting brain disease and damage.
Brain Awareness Week is an annual program sponsored by the Dana Foundation for Brain Initiatives. The museum is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), a tri-service Army, Navy and Air Force agency of the Department of Defense with a threefold mission of consultation, education and research.
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