Every March, NGSP students and faculty participate in Brain Awareness Week, a series of events held around the world to increase public awareness about the brain. For 2007, BAW activities were organized by the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program (NGSP) students under the direction of Dr. Randy Nelson. The four day long event scheduled for March 14-17 was held at Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, OH. The exhibit consisted of several stations which included:

• Brain zoo station where kids were asked to match the brain specimens to the right animal. Specimens included frog, chicken, fish, rodent, cat and primate brains. The human brain specimens generated a lot of interest from kids and adults alike.
• A visual attention task where subjects are asked to count a certain event occurring on the computer screen and later asked if they could identify an unusual occurrence. Kids received free brain pencils and brain erasers.
• Hands-on cerebellar learning task where kids/adults were asked to wear vision shifting goggles and have a bulls-eye target practice. It took some time for the people hit the target correctly. This task was a super-hit among the kids.
• A plastic brain model which could be taken apart and reassembled. This was a challenging exhibit and older kids enjoyed it a lot.

To learn more about brain awareness week, please visit the Society for Neuroscience website.