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!
It can’t be avoided: the standards must be met! While we encourage educators everywhere to break free from the shackles of bureaucratic granularity in education… we also admit that education standards perform a necessary function. There are educational and developmental milestones that all students should achieve, and it is the goal of the standards to ensure our nation’s youth reach them! TL;DR? Read to the bottom to see the NGSS alignment chart!
For educators on the outset, the standards help you develop your scope and sequence. The NGSS, in particular, are great as they focus on “three-dimensional learning” and hands-on inquiry, offering students the opportunity to be scientists. This can help any teacher develop a curriculum that will encourage skepticism and problem-solving.
But for the teachers who want to develop radical new lesson plans, experiences, and who may even want their students to “Fail” (in the best way!) over and over again as they tackle an incredibly tough problem, there may be hours of content in the course that don’t meet a specific standard, despite the fact that students are learning valuable lessons about what it means to be a scientist, to perform their own research, to fail, fail fail, and finally achieve something unique and new. But, in order to help your students earn this experience, while still ticking every box on your standards, it requires you to be very economical with their class time.
Our kits and experiments at Backyard Brains offer a great opportunity for you to meet tricky standards in a meaningful way (like MS LS1-8). The same kits are also powerful tools for teachers looking to buck the trend and throw their students into uncharted territories, like encouraging your middle school and high school students to perform and present their own independent research projects!
Check out this map which cross-aligns many of our kits and experiments with NGSS standards and the “Neuroscience Core Concepts,” a set of guiding principals set forth by the “Society for Neuroscience” which offer teachers a roadmap for critical knowledge and skills that can help a K12 student on their way to a career in Neuroscience. Don’t let your “Scope and Sequence” limit you and your students’ potential; rather, leverage these standards and tools like ours to inspire a culture of problem-based learning where your students will still learn the unchanging, fundamental skills and ideas, but then apply that knowledge to new and novel questions.
The Standards
While not completely comprehensive, check out this infographic and following list is to guide you to the kits and experiments which may best fit holes in your current scope and sequence!
In an effort to make neuroscience education accessible to everyone, we are always keeping our eyes peeled for grant funding opportunities! We are constantly on the lookout for programs we can recommend to teachers and admins who are excited about Neuroscience and STEM, but might not have the funding for right now.
The Toshiba America Foundation offers several very generous grant cycles throughout the school year and, as you can see in the tweet above, someone on the Toshiba judging panel is as excited about K12 Neurosci Ed as these students are!
There is a deadline approaching quickly for K-5 grants, and there are several other grants throughout the year (staggered every few months) which offer funding for Middle and High School students.
Lowe’s Toolbox for Education
Lowe’s Toolbox for Education – Awarding up to $5,000 to schools for projects ranging from new gardens to STEM projects, Lowe’s offers generous funding for creative K12 projects of all design.
Need help applying to a grant?
You don’t have to go it alone
If you’re looking for help finding or applying for grants, our partners and friends at Ward’s Science have a free grant support service. From finding the grants to writing winning applications, they can help you with the whole process.
Whether you may be looking for help applying to the Toshiba America Foundation grant, starting a Donor’s Choose campaign, or simply need help finding potential grants, the indomitable Rusti Berent of Ward’s Grant Services is ready to help guide you through the process.
And, if you need any more encouragement to reach out to and work with Ward’s Grant Services, know that they’ve helped schools raise over $1 million dollars in grant funding… also, check out this recent, and very relevant, Grant Winner from their Success Stories Page:
Matthew F., Billerica, MA, Toshiba America Foundation
