Celebrating Brain Awareness Week

jhalper — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:04:55 +0000

Is having a beer and sandwich at the local pub the best way to improve your brain awareness? At least in the city of Rehovot one evening last week, those eating and drinking in a few select establishments got to hear Weizmann Institute neurobiology graduate students give informal talks and demonstrations. The event was a part of Brain Awareness week, an annual, international affair. The aim is not really to make people more aware of their brains (or their brains more aware), but to promote brain research.

Some participated in an experiment in which they found that a smell can help imprint a new experience in memory. Others learned what happens in their brains when they watch a movie. Still others heard how we assess memories to decide if they're true or not.

If you missed Brain Awareness week, you can still read all about our brain research on our website

â Speaking of international events, Israeli high school students got to play the part of CERN physicists, this month. They joined students in 23 countries to participate the International Hands on Particle Physics Masterclasses, in which they analyzed data from the Large Hadron Collider experiments. With some help from Institute physicists who are part of the real LHC team, they looked for signs of various exotic subatomic particles and discussed the data in videoconferences with their young colleagues.

jhalper Tue, 03/22/2011 - 04:04

An Einstein Sighting at Brain Awareness Week!!

kcollins — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

An Einstein Sighting at Brain Awareness Week!!

The USA Science and Engineering Festival pulls out the stops to get the word out about the festival! This time the Festival has recruited none other than...Albert Einstein to promote the festival at Brain Awareness Week at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Einstein talked about exciting scientific principles and got students excited about the USA Science and Engineering Festival that is going to take place in Oct 2010.

About 800 students attended Brain Awareness Week activities at the National Museum of Health and Medicine over the course of the five-day program. Students were from public and private schools and even home schooled student schools in Maryland, DC and Virginia.

Responses to Einstein's visit:

"Absolutely loved Einstein. What a wonderful way to bring science and history alive. He is a keeper!"

"Loved Einstein. Excellent representation."

"Loved Einstein. Very effective."

Einstein was "Awesome. I think the students were able to retain more because they spoke to him."

Thank you so much for making it possible for Einstein to participate in Brain Awareness Week at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. He certainly set the stage for a brain-focused interactive learning experience.

Find out more about Einstein Alive here.

What are you doing to get the word out about the USA Science and Engineering Festival? Have an idea? Let us know!

kcollins Thu, 03/25/2010 - 07:00