5 Brain Awareness Week Ideas (Apply Now to Get up to $1,250 in Grants!)

Second week of March is always a special time of year for brain buffs. That is when educators from around the world join in for neuroscience outreach in schools and local communities!

Money’s always scarce, but your organization doesn’t have to tap into its own funds. If you write up and submit a proposal within the next couple of weeks (through October 31), you may get up to $1,250 to fund your Brain Awareness Week (BAW) activities for next March. This year, the IBRO/Dana Foundation Grants Program was expanded by 60%, so your chances of winning are bigger than ever!

But where to begin? You don’t need to break your head over activity ideas. We have a lot of wildly popular, effective and customizable hands-on experiments that have already made many an appearance during previous BAWs. Or, if you prefer something new, you can always scour our blog for inspiration from our fellows and interns! All of our experiments were designed to be conducted in makeshift labs, classrooms or public spaces. Being attractive and appealing whether you’re reaching out to middle-schoolers, college students or the general public, they all stand for democratization of neuroscience.

But what if you can’t make the second week of March? No worries. You’re not in any way required to stick with the exact BAW dates (March 11-17, 2024), nor will it affect your chances of getting awarded. Do it whenever you want, as long as you use the official Brain Awareness Week branding.

5 Brain Awareness Week BYB Classics

The foremost reason why these experiments strike a chord with so many people is that they break down very complex and sophisticated concepts in a way that looks and feels lo-fi enough not to intimidate anyone. Being featured on TED doesn’t do them a disservice either!

Another reason why we chose them is that they don’t take a lot of time or equipment.

1. BAW All-Time Favorite: Human-Human Interface

What does it take to achieve control over another person’s arm so that it moves because you wanted it to move? In its essence, this is an experiment in advanced neuroprosthetics that’s cooked up for audiences as young as 5th grade!

A favorite activity to do with our community during #BrainAwarenessWeek is from @BackyardBrains. We (and the kids!) especially love setting up elementary school principals and teachers to demonstrate the human-human interface: https://t.co/HTgIWpyq5D #neuroscience @NGPMichigan pic.twitter.com/QJL8VTQDsm

— Michigan Neuroscience Institute (MNI) ? (@UM_MNI) March 16, 2022

New Peer-Reviewed Paper on Fish Play Behavior (Classroom-Friendly Experiment!)

Cats and dogs aren’t the only pets fond of chasing things that run away from them. Aquarium fish do it too, as shown in our new peer-reviewed paper that came out just last week in the “Animals” journal! Out of 66 fish species observed, nearly 90% showed interest in or set out to chase moving laser pointed dots.

What makes us especially proud is that the paper came as culmination of a yearlong research that began as our last year’s Fellow Sofia Eisenbeiser’s summer project. As scientists know it all too well, a single year is pretty fast and couldn’t make us more proud!

Another reason for pride is the fact that this research adds another layer of proof to what we’ve been saying all along: (neuro)science doesn’t have to cost a fortune. This particular experiment only requires a couple of things that many people already have: a fish tank with some inhabitants (the more, the merrier!) and a laser pointer or two. Incredibly easy to replicate in, say, your biology classroom!

Our Wireless Human-Human Interface Enters 2022 Amazing Maker Award Contest (Help Us Win!)

Picture this: you’re sitting in your bedroom in Germany, video chatting with a friend in South Korea over coffee. You sip your coffee and they have no choice but to sip theirs!

That’s exactly what our new prototype, the Wireless Human-Human Interface, is about. It transmits biosignals from one person’s brain to the ulnar nerve in another person’s arm. Yes, that’s what our classic Human-Human Interface does too. Except that you can now do it remotely!

So far, people could connect remotely via WiFi. Now they can also connect via electrophysiology!

Which is why we’re super excited to announce that the Wireless HHI has made it into the selection for this year’s Amazing Maker Award contest, along with 95 other applicants! The top 12 projects will be selected as finalists and published in Make: Magazine, and the best 3 are to get cash prizes. It’s a juried competition, but community votes will count as well.

Best of all, you can help us too if you like our prototype! Just head over here and hit “Vote”. (You’ll need to log in or register if you haven’t already.) You can vote once per day per project till July 15, when the winners will be announced.