New Edition of “How Your Brain Works” at Brain Awareness Week 2024
Schools, museums, libraries, community centers and other public venues in over 75 countries— last week, the entire planet was firing spikes in honor of the brain during Brain Awareness Week 2024! An annual event organized and partly funded by Dana Foundation and International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), it’s the biggest joint scientific outreach in the world whose goal is to get more people to think, talk, make, partake in experiments and get generally excited about the brain.
And just like every previous year, we were part of it too, personally or in spirit through our gear! This time around, our SpikerBoxes have conquered five countries (that we know of): from our own to Canada, the UK, Serbia and Austria.
But the Serbian high school teachers and students were in for a special treat.
“How Your Brain Works” Now Speaks Serbian Too
After Spanish and Italian editions, our book “How Your Brain Works” (MIT Press, 2022) got its first expanded edition. The good news is, there are several more experiments that we worked on with our fellows since the 2023 Summer Research Fellowship. The bad news, the book is in Serbian, so the new experiments aren’t available to our US audience for the time being! We hereby extend our gratitude to Nordeus Foundation, Center for Promotion of Science and the US Embassy in Serbia, who have made it all possible.
But the book launch, several workshops and media appearances weren’t the only way we popularized neuroscience in Serbia. We also donated neuroscience combos (the book + Neuron SpikerBox Pro + Human SpikerBoxO) to 23 schools around the country. These schools are now joining the ranks with a couple Serbian universities, two primary schools and a grammar school that have already received our gear over the past years. It will translate to thousands of students getting a chance to do hands-on neuroscience in the classroom!
More BYB Neuroscience at Brain Awareness Week 2024
Here’s how it was in the Brighton & Hove Libraries in East Sussex, UK. Check out the girl below masterfully controlling the Claw by clacking her teeth!
An amazing #BrainAwarenessWeek day in the @BHLibraries Jubilee Library. @SussexNeuro, @OGSteele and some amazing volunteers from @SussexNeuroSoc and @Sussex_Psych demoing how our brains send signals to our bodies. pic.twitter.com/KUKNxPbQk1
— Sarah King (@drsarahking) March 16, 2024
Kids did demoes with other kids in SciTech Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.
@SfNOttawa is at the @SciTechMuseum with fun @BackyardBrains activities for #BrainAwarenessWeek!!!! Today and tomorrow 11am-3pm. ??? pic.twitter.com/XltigvPYpm
— Lauren Butterfield (@l_butterfield6) March 14, 2024
University professors did their own share of clawing too.
Let the scientific reaching of out commence! #BrainAwarenessWeek2024 @BackyardBrains pic.twitter.com/HsTP16s81l
— Patrick Randall (@PRandall86) March 11, 2024
The run-up to Brain Awareness Week was eventful too. Our crew of scientists including Étienne Serbe-Kamp, Matthias Meier, Aljoscha Leonhardt and Florencia Edwards went to show a full collection of experiments to highschoolers at the VISTA Science Academy in Vienna.