More than 800 West Virginia and Kentucky elementary school children will visit Marshall University’s Memorial Student Center on Tuesday, April 10, to learn about the brain and nervous system through activities and games.
This is the 10th annual Brain Expo to be held at Marshall. The event features 27 interactive stations where children explore various parts of their nervous system. They also learn how the brain controls their body and why healthy lifestyle choices lead to better brain health. Activities at the stations include touching a real brain, playing a memory game, coloring their own “brain hat,” examining drug effects and building brain cell-shaped key chains.
Over 200 Marshall students and faculty from the College of Science, the departments of psychology and communications disorders, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and the School of Nursing will oversee the activities. Community partners include St. Mary’s Medical Center presenting a station about brain and spinal cord safety, and representatives from Cabell Huntington Hospital’s neuroscience, neurophysiology and stroke departments will each present stations.
The event is part of Brain Awareness Week, an annual global effort founded in 1996 by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. The Brain Expo at Marshall was founded by Dr. Nadja Spitzer and Dr. Brian Antonsen, both of whom are neuroscientists and faculty in the university’s Department of Biological Sciences.
“Events like the Brain Expo increase public awareness of brain research at Marshall and in gaining the interest of students who may choose a career path in science, technology, engineering or mathematics,” Spitzer said. “Through the many fun hands-on activities, attendees get to better understand the brain. Our goal for the Brain Expo is to interest children in science and research at a young age though games and activities that demonstrate the relevance of neuroscience in everyday life.”
Spitzer said registration for this year’s event is full, but anyone interested in next year’s program can e-mail brainawareness@marshall.edu.
The program is supported by the National Science Foundation, Marshall’s College of Science and the Department of Biological Sciences.
For more information about the Brain Expo and Marshall’s Brain Awareness Program, visit www.marshall.edu/baw.
