Neuroscience 2005 Abstract
| Presentation Number: | 19.3 |
|---|---|
| Abstract Title: | Interactive curriculum for middle-school outreach: the braingame. |
| Authors: |
Anderson, L. R.*1,2
; Hasenkamp, W. M.3
; Offe, K.1,2
1Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA 2Department of Neurololgy, Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA 3Yerkes National Primate Center, Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA |
| Primary Theme and Topics |
History and Teaching of Neuroscience - Teaching of Neuroscience -- Pre-college |
| Session: |
19. Teaching of Neuroscience: Pre-College Poster |
| Presentation Time: | Sunday, November 13, 2005 10:00 AM-11:00 AM |
| Location: | Washington Convention Center - Hall A-C, Board # WW84 |
| Keywords: | Brain Awareness Week, outreach, interactive |
As the Atlanta Chapter for the SFN has tried to expand its outreach efforts during Brain Awareness Week, we have found that volunteers are often intimidated by planning an appropriate lesson. This problem has been most difficult for the volunteers visiting middle-school classrooms. In order to help recruit volunteers to work with middle-school students, we set out to develop a curriculum that could be easily used by these volunteers with minimal preparation. To meet this need we developed The BrainGame, which is an interactive presentation that covers basic neuroscience topics appropriate for this age group. As the students work through The BrainGame, questions seem to be randomly selected from four categories: Structure & Function, When it Goes Wrong, Drugs, and Wild Card. These questions introduce basic neuroscience concepts such as Neuroanatomy, Chemical Neurotransmission, Pathophysiology, and Sensory Perception in the form of an animated and interactive game. The game includes movies, case studies and demonstrations. More than 20 volunteers from the ACSFN have used the BrainGame over the past two years. It has been used in classrooms from 5th to 9th grade and is usually implemented in a whole-class format in which we divide the class into two teams that take turns working through the questions. Feedback about The BrainGame from volunteers, students and teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. The BrainGame is now available from the ACSFN website, and we encourage volunteers to download the game and try it out: http://biology.gsu.edu/Atlanta-Neuro/brain_awareness/index.html. Efforts are also underway to expand the content of the game, and enable volunteers and teachers to customize the material covered.
Sample Citation:
[Authors]. [Abstract Title]. Program No. XXX.XX. 2005 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, 2005. Online.
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