March 15 - 21, 2021 is Brain Awareness Week
Use this opportunity to learn about your brain and brain research.
Things to Do Links Online Activities Lesson Plans
Activities about memory, attention and distraction by the University of Utah.
The neuroscience of our senses by the University of Utah.
Spend a few minutes on this page to learn the basics about your brain.
Also explore The Human Brain on the Franklin Institute Online Web page.
Online science resources for students, teachers, and parents.
The Whole Brain Atlas is an information resource for central nervous system imaging.
Use clay, recyclables, food or anything else you can get your hands on to create a model of a neuron. Pictures from books and the Internet may help you get an idea of where the components of a neuron should go and what shape they should be.
Discover how you can become a Neuroscientist.
Intro to Neuroscience by the University of Utah.
Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an international campaign dedicated to advancing public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
You carry around a three-pound mass of wrinkly material in your head that controls every single thing you will ever do. Learn more from the National Geographic.
Take a tour at the Exploratorium Web site. After the tour, spend five minutes listing everything that memory helps you with.
Learn what the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT is leading the field in brain research.
This site has been created for all students and teachers who would like to learn about the nervous system.
Here are some activities to test your memory -- and some things you can try to help you remember things better.
Memory, a major exhibition at the Exploratorium, ran from May 22, 1998 through January 10, 1999.
Visit this web page created by the Alzheimer’s Association and discover four ways to make brain-healthy life choices.
Your brain is the boss of your body. It runs the show and controls just about everything you do, even when you're asleep. Not bad for something that looks like a big, wrinkly, gray sponge.
Brain facts that make you go, "Hmmmmm".
This page provides resources to help you learn about Alzheimer’s disease and understand how it affects you.
NIDA's mission is to lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), created this Web site to educate adolescents ages 11 through 15 (as well as their parents and teachers) on the science behind drug abuse.
This series is designed to encourage young people in grades five through nine to learn about the effects of drug abuse on the body and the brain.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health.
Visit this web page from PBS. Read the page, and then complete the probe activity.
Read this short article. After the reading, answer these questions:
- What would happen if you couldn't feel pain?
- How does smell help you protect yourself? What about taste?
- Do you know anyone who is hearing or sight impaired? What other senses do they use to navigate their way through the world?
- Could you survive if you had none of the five senses?
- What does your brain do with the information it gets? (For instance if you taste something it tells you to cover your ears.)
Scramble these puzzles and see if you can put them back together.
Test your knowledge about the nervous system. The game is contained in a PowerPoint file, therefore, your computer must have the ability to read ppt files.
Play these online interactive games to help you learn about the brain and nervous system. [The Shockwave plug-in is required.]
Check out this collection of interactive brain games for 7-12th grade students.
Students will review the parts of the synapse and their functions by playing a game called "Synaptic Tag".
How easy is it to recognize faces when they are upside down? Find out with this game.
Read the clue about the brain and then type a letter. Keep the man from being hanged.
Try this experiment, say the color, don't read the word. How successful were you? Why do you think some people have trouble with this activity?
These lesson ideas are intended to give teachers a head start in planning classroom activities during Brain Awareness Week.
Understand how the nervous system allows us to learn, remember, and cope with changes in the environment.
Explore gelotology (the science of laughter) and its benefits to our social, mental, and physical well-being.
"Read" the pictures to make a single word or phrase. Each word or phrase has something to do with the nervous system.
Explore various theories about laughter, laughter’s effects on our mental health, and the benefits of laughter to our immune system.
Think you have a good memory? Then take this little test..
Students will learn about the structure of a neuron by constructing a model.
In support of the documentary Wipe Out, this lesson plan raises students' awareness of traumatic brain injuries.
How fast are you? Test your response time using these reaction time experiments.