Friday, March 6, 2009

Prepping for Brain Awareness Week 2009

Each year The Dana Foundation and The Society for Neuroscience sponsor Brain Awareness Week. BAW 2009 is coming up soon: March 16 - 22. I'll be organizing a presentation at a school-wide assembly once again this year, and am hoping to go further by getting some students involved with making some posters about the brain and related issues to put up around the building. This year I'd also like to extend my contribution to Brain Awareness Week into the "blogosphere" by pointing you to some of the great - free - educational resources that are available for those who want to learn more about the brain.

iTunes University (requires iTunes)
MIT Open Courseware - Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Other Web Resources
I hope you'll find these resources interesting and valuable. I'd also be very interested in hearing from any readers who might be inspired to celebrate Brain Awareness Week at your school / organization.

2 comments:

  1. So, Johnathan, BAW seems to be a way to get students and teachers to consider all the ways we can learn! I am interested in using Project Based Learning to help my students have authentic, concrete experiences in mathematics. Do you have any recommendations along this line?

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  2. Hi Deb,

    Thanks for "stopping by" and leaving a comment. Brain Awareness Week is definitely a good way to get teachers and students thinking about the brain as the organ of learning, even though we still have a long way to go in terms of understanding the mechanisms involved. I recruited a few students at school today to help me out with planning and developing some ideas for next week - I'm glad to have some help this year, particularly from students!

    As for project based learning and math - great ideas, and I'd be happy to help you brainstorm (ha ha) some ways to flesh them out. I think the best way to start is to figure out what specific math concept(s) you want your students to learn?

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