Reserve your Spot: Teacher Training Workshop (January 31st)

This is a call to arms for science educators everywhere…

Following the success of our three-day teacher training workshop at the end of 2019, and our Summer 2019 Workshop on Reactions and Reflexes, we want to kick off 2020 with the next FREE workshop open to the public!

This workshop is coming up quick… so reserve your spot soon! Space is limited, but we will work to accommodate as many as we can.

When: January 31st, 9am-6pm

Where: Downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

The Workshop!

As a participant, you will engage in a full day of programming designed to help you on your way to becoming a domain expert in neuroscience education! This workshop will provide an introduction to each of our Flagship products, giving you hands-on experience recording from Invertebrates and the human heart, brain, eyes, and muscles.

Who should attend?

If you are a teacher who wants to bring the cutting edge to your classroom, this is for you! If you aren’t content with teaching the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again, we want to support you as you continue to innovate in your classroom.

This workshop is great for:

• Middle School Science and STEM
• High School Biology (Intro and Advanced)
• High School Anatomy and Physiology
• Interdisciplinary Courses
• Science Dept. Leaders
• Administrators seeking the next big thing!

No prior experience with our tools or labs required, but both beginners and old pro’s will take away valuable lessons and actionable ideas from the workshop!

You will learn…

Our first priority is in giving to the skills and knowledge needed to confidently bring these resources back to your classroom to help engage your students in this cutting-edge field of STEM education. You will receive hands-on training with the Backyard Brains tools, you will perform introductory experiments under the guidance of our trained staff and company co-founder, and finally, you will practice presenting your findings and teaching this new content because we believe teaching is the best way to learn.

Glowing Testimonials

We’ve received glowing feedback from our previous workshops! Here’s a few highlights:

“Thank you for the work you are doing to help us bring neuroscience to not just our students, but nationwide. Citizen science is an amazing tool for educators to use in the formation and creation of budding scientists — drawing out both the students that didn’t even know they were interested in school, by intriguing and igniting a curiosity they didn’t know they had, as well as sparking a new interest in discovery for your standard “good student” as well.” – Texas Teacher Attending Dec 2019 Workshop

“This is one of the best workshops I have attended. I am quite ‘demanding’ in what I expect when I attend for free and attend on a weekend … this workshop FAR exceeded my expectations and the lessons will be incorporated into my curriculum immediately. Thanks for all your efforts!” – California Teacher attending Jul 2019 Workshop

The Cost: Free!?

We know teachers are frugal by necessity, and the last thing you want to include in your request for a PD day and travel expenses for attending a workshop is that glaring “Cost to Attend: $$$” – which is why we offer our teacher training workshops for free!

If you already have gear back in your classroom, great! We will help you become a power-user. If you don’t have any Backyard Brains gear yet, we recommend The Toolbox, which contains one of each of our flagship products, which will all be featured in our workshop.

3-Day Teacher Workshop a Smashing Success!

Texas Teachers Brave Michigan Winter for Neuroscience Ed Workshop, and Love it!

Nine teachers from Texas join up with a few of us Neuroscience Education nerds in snowy Michigan… and holiday magic happens!

Educators get Hype for DIY EEG (Brain Recordings!)

Take it from Twitter: Low-cost EEG is a powerful teaching tool!

As a business, it can be strange to package and ship off all these different neuroscience education tools, wondering if they’ll like their new home, will they make a difference in this big, strange world?

Much like a proud parent, we are always excited when we see tweets and testimonials like this one from an international user in Ireland, preparing to use one of our DIY EEG devices for neuroscience outreach!

Not just that, but it inspired a fun follow-up conversation amongst other Twitter users:

We’ve got history, humor, and enthusiastic recommendations all in one!

Brief History of EEG

What John and Mark are referencing is Hans Berger’s pioneering work in brain recordings, the results of which were published in 1929: see the publication here in its full, German language glory!

Wikipedia provides a nice summary of this original experiment:

His method involved inserting silver wires under the patient’s scalp, one at the front of the head and one at the back. Later he used silver foil electrodes attached to the head by a rubber bandage. As a recording device, he first used the Lippmann’s capillary electrometer, but results were disappointing. He then switched to the string galvanometer and later to a double-coil Siemens recording galvanometer, which allowed him to record electrical voltages as small as one ten thousandths of a volt. The resulting output, up to three seconds in duration, was then photographed by an assistant.

The original recording from that string galvanometer is pictured in John Butler’s tweet!

Fortunately, 90 years has advanced technology considerably, allowing us to perform the same experiment and view the same results with our non-invasive EEG Sweatband!

The Tools to Make it Possible

Bring this EEG experiment and demonstration to your classroom!

Heart and Brain SpikerBox ($150):

Record from your Heart, your Brain, and even your Eyes… EEG, EKG, and EOG allow us to study more complex electrical systems that are responsible for nearly everything that makes us human.

Experiments:

• Heart Action Potentials
• Record the Autonomic Nervous System
• Record EEG (Alpha Waves) From the Occipital Lobe
• Brain Waves During Sleep: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”