• A Fun and Productive Teacher Training Workshop: These Teachers are Neuro-Nerds!
    Biz
    Following the previous success of our 3-day Teacher Training workshop at the end of the 2019 Calendar Year – we decided to kick-off 2020 with a free workshop for educators, open to all! So we set a date… Jan 31st, shot out some emails, and hoped we wouldn’t be eating bagels and cream cheese alone […]
  • Teacher Spotlight: Successful DonorsChoose campaign electrifies Mrs. Kielma's classroom
    Education
    Last year, we were introduced to a number of teachers who wanted to fund their classroom through DonorsChoose–check out our previous blog post about it! Mrs. Kielma is a biology and biotechnical engineering teacher at an urban school, and her DonorsChoose campaign was for a Human-Human Interface to explore biomedical engineering and neuroprosthetics. In her […]
  • Rio Schools Students Love their SpikerBoxes and Claws!
    Education
    A Middle School Teacher Testimonial! We met Deborah Antrim, a medical pathway and 8th-grade teacher in Rio school district, at CSTA this past year, and she told us all about the successes she had had with Backyard Brains gear in her classes and summer camps! We asked her to share some pictures and details about […]
  • Alma Schools High School Students Present Research on the Reaction Times of Distracted Drivers
    Education
    This year, we were excited to release two new kits in concert with our Muscle SpikerBox Pro, kits that are designed to help capture very precise data about reflexes (The Reflex Hammer) and reactions (The Reaction Timer). It didn’t take long for students to start getting their hands on these tools, and we are excited […]
  • Education
    Is DIY Neuroscience the best way to end the school year?* The end of the school year… as we all say, summer is “nearest unto heaven.” ** Students and teachers agree, when we enter that last week of school, it is easy to start checking out. Working with a friend’s class at a local Middle […]
  • Teacher Testimonial: Mr. Furlow
    Education
    Enhance IB or AP Bio with DIY Neuroscience! Mr. Furlow and his students bring Bio to life with Hands-On Neuroscience   Mr. Furlow teaches IB Bio with a twist: his students record from both invertebrate and human nervous systems to perform unique, quantitative neuroscience labs. What effect does nicotine have on the firing rate of […]
  • Summer Neuroscience Camp Empowers NYC Teens!
    Education
    Rockefeller’s Summer Neuroscience Program: Graduate Students share their excitement for Neuroscience with teens from all over NYC The Summer Neuroscience Program (SNP) is self-described as “a two-week course aimed at introducing talented and enthusiastic high school students to the brain,” but could more affectionately be described as summer neuroscience camp! Students learn about the history of neuroscience, […]
  • Check out these Crowdfunded DIY Neuro Classrooms - are you next?
    Education
    Donors Choose Neuroscience Donors Choose continues to be a fantastic option for teachers who are determined to get DIY neuroscience tools into their classrooms, despite declining departmental budgets. With its Kickstarter-like backing program, Donors Choose gives educators another option for providing classroom equipment for their students without breaking the bank–by relying on the kindness of their […]
  • A 7th Grade STEM Classroom's Neuroscience Adventure
    Education
    Neuroscience Education creates Excitement, engenders Empathy, and inspires Exploration A quick introduction: Amy Farkas is a Middle School STEM teacher from Southeastern Michigan who sought and won funding for her class’s foray into Neuroscience. She then spent the last quarter of her school year this past year introducing her students to Neuroscience and Biomedical Sciences. […]
  • Enhance Your PLTW Class with Hands-on Neuroscience
    Education
    Engage your students with even more Real-World Science PLTW is a powerhouse in the STEM Ed movement. Thanks to them, many schools are offering courses in Engineering, Computer Science, and, most exciting to us at BYB, Biomedical Sciences. Thanks to these courses, students have the opportunity to learn about all sorts of incredible career and […]
  • BYB in High School!
    Education
    Backyard Brains always loves hearing about our equipment making its way out into the world and into a classroom, so we were thrilled to hear from Dr. Nancy Cowdin, a Neuroscientist and Science teacher at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. Dr. Cowdin recently taught an elective course in Neuroscience where seniors at the all-girls high school […]
  • Gift from Iran thanks to Open Source: cockroach research tools and experiments made by students
    Education
    On January 1st, we received a New Year’s gift from another continent: Neuroscience tools and experiments made by a group of high school students selected from the 20 best rated schools of Iran. They were written lab reports, submitted for an interdisciplinary neuroscience competition that utilized our open source experiments with cockroaches as a resource […]