Students and faculty from Earlham’s Neuroscience program recently collaborated with the Joseph Moore Museum to produce the “Brain Explorers” celebration for Brain Awareness Week. The event was attended by more than 100 museum visitors. Neuroscience students formed teams and independently designed, built and presented museum exhibits intended to teach other students and the broader Richmond community some aspects of neuroscience.
- Soe Yu Naing, Nhi Dinh and Akul Sharma wowed museum visitors with their demonstration of how the ‘miracle berry’ can chemically trick your senses by making sour foods taste sweet.
- Mahmoud Mahdi, Fadi Disoqui and Jolene Wells taught some unforgettable lessons about how memory works.
- Mayeesha Ahmed and Abou-Nica Fomukong helped people understand how the different parts of the brain contribute to all the different things we humans can do.
- Timothy Toninga and Mussa Ibrahim gave an ‘electrifying’ demonstration of how nerves and muscles communicate using electrical signals, by measuring the electrical currents produced by the muscles of volunteers.
Kat Bartlow, a visiting assistant professor in the Biology department, helped facilitate the students’ efforts by organizing the event. Other contributing faculty members included assistant professor Beth Mechlin (Psychology, Neuroscience), and museum director Heather Lerner (also an assistant professor in the Biology department). The event was funded by the Experiential Learning Fund, through Earlham’s Center for Integrated Learning.
Brain Awareness Week is a long-standing campaign by the Dana Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience. For the past 20 years, neuroscientists around the world have dedicated one week in March to increasing public appreciation and awareness of neuroscience. This year marks the first year that Earlham College participated in Brain Awareness Week efforts; hopefully, Brain Awareness Week events will become an annual tradition at Earlham.