• 2024 Summer School: High-Schoolers Build 9 Brain-Machine Interfaces!
    Fellowship
    This summer, we’ve beat our own record: in just under two weeks, 20 high-schoolers created nine projects using what is shaping up to be our most creative neuroscience kit ever! The tool (or should we say meta-tool?) called Neuro:Bit lets you build brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that work using your body’s electrical signals. Depending on the […]
  • 2023 Summer US-Serbian Research Fellowship Concludes: New Experiments in the Works!
    Fellowship
    — Written by Jelena Ciric — Over a dozen busy bees, 5 research projects, 4 hot weeks of July, countless data, iterations and coffee cups, one book of experiments to soak it all up and present to the wider audience — and the Backyard Brains 2023 US-Serbian Summer Research Fellowship rounds off. The result will […]
  • How the SpikerBox Revolutionized K12 STEM Education... and just what is a SpikerBox?
    Biz
    How the SpikerBox Revolutionized K12 STEM Education… and just what is a SpikerBox? Backyard Brains exists today because of a once-lofty goal: To turn a $40,000+ rack of graduate-level electronics into a $100 kit that students could use in the classroom to perform real, hands-on neuroscience experiments. A decade later, we have developed four lines […]
  • Project Idea: Can you beat Terry Crews' Garage full of Muscle Powered Instruments?
    Education
    We can’t help you get as strong as Terry, but we can teach you the tech to build this yourself! Following the launch of our Brain-Music Interface experiment trilogy, we thought it was appropriate to revisit this classic… While we have our suspicions that there may be a bit more stimulation rather than control going […]
  • First Place at Science Fair for Student using BYB Gear
    Education
    My name is Azrin Khan and I am currently a junior (11th grade) in Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet Senior High School in California. My purpose is to build a device which will alert humans when they are going to have muscle cramps, and it will keep a record of the intensity of the cramp and […]
  • Help us Study the Neuroscience of Sport
    Education
    • February 5, 2019
    • by Greg
    Help us win a Grant to Empower a New Generation of Sports Scientists! Through our adventures at Backyard Brains over the years, we have come to love electromyography, muscle coordination, and the body in movement. We have already begun some classes where we teach muscle physiology through sport! We recently applied for a grant to devote […]
  • From Middle School to University, Technology that Helps is Hot!
    Education
    “A new generation of students has access to 3D printers and other DIY technology…” I was speaking recently to one of our colleagues at Temple University about a project several of his students were working on, and he said something that really struck me, “these students are the first generation to have grown up with 3D […]
  • Backyard Brains High School Student Personal Projects
    Education
    • November 2, 2018
    • by Greg
    Backyard Brains is live from inside the classroom of Colegio Alberto Blest Gana in Santiago to present you 5 group projects brought to life by creative and passionate students. and the methodology we used to choose the projects. This high school has been like a second lab for Backyard Brains, where the students beta test […]
  • Citizen Science Sleepaway Camp: BYB Visits Campus Party Brazil
    Education
    Before I spill the Feijoada about Backyard Brains’ awesome experience at Campus Party Brazil, I should mention that I firmly believe that education can save the world. I should also mention that in regards to our brains, according to neuroscience research, your education lasts your entire life. I’ll cut to the chase: my recent Brazilian […]
  • Nothing in life is free...
    Education
    “You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.” -Sam Harris   The previous quote originated in a book called Free Will by Sam Harris. I take it to loosely mean that we do not exert conscious control over our thoughts and actions (free will), though we do […]
  • Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em…Shrimps?!
    Education
    Hi folks! My name is Dan and I am a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying neuroscience and minoring in computer science. Back at school, I work in a songbird lab where I listen to neurons fire in zebra finches, and I’m on the ballroom dance team. Outside of working, sleeping, and eating, […]
  • Lifelong Learners Perform Neuroscience Experiments!
    Education
    Ph.D. student and friend of Backyard Brains, Brinnae Bent of Duke University, recently hosted a class for seniors participating in the “Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke (OLLI at Duke).” With help from some colleagues at North Carolina State University, she put on an afternoon workshop in Electrophysiology for these lifelong learners. From its website, […]