Brain Awareness Week

A key component of the Neuroscience Capstone course is the involvement in Brain Awareness Week. In the weeks leading to BAW, senior neuroscience students prepared teaching modules focusing on different topics relating to the brain. Fourth graders at North Intermediate Elementary in St. Peter learned topics ranging from brain anatomy to the different senses to brain safety.

The teaching modules allowed the fourth grade students to learn about the brain through active interaction and participation with each other and the Gustavus students. Modules allowed students to play fun games, including an interactive game in which the students acted as neurotransmitters, receptors, and drugs in order to simulate how drugs affect neurotransmitter binding to receptors.

Overall, the event was well received by both the teachers and the students. Teachers were happy with the material taught and their students were actively engaged and seemed to have learned a lot. The neuroscience students had a wonderful time preparing their modules and sharing a lot of what they have learned throughout their experience in the neuroscience program with the fourth grade students.