FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS
ANNUAL SUMMER WORKSHOP
Each summer our center holds a three day workshop, 'Exploring Neuroscience and Mental Health,' in collaboration with the Life Sciences Outreach Program at Harvard. These workshops are open (by application) to any local high school science teacher. Each workshop generally serves 25 teachers and we've had participants from all over MA, as well as NH and RI. Activities may include lectures on basic and clinical neuroscience, lab tours, a hands-on 'wet lab' experience, talks by members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, book and curriculum planning discussions and opportunities to meet with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Conte Center labs.
Enrollment for the Summer 2015 workshop is currently full, but resources from past workshops are available below. Please also visit our "For the Public" page and consider attending some of our general lecture programs.
BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK
Brain Awareness Week, launched by the Dana Foundation and supported by the Society for Neuroscience, is a global campaign to raise interest in and awareness about brain science. The official date for Brain Awareness Week is mid-March, but we celebrate it freely throughout the year. In particular, for the past three years, we have collaborated with "Brain Basics" members from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Mind, Brain and Education Master's program to offer brain awareness programs to middle school students. These programs have been one day events done in conjunction with a local school and featuring a variety of interactive brain stations, from hands-on neuroanatomy and recording brain waves to testing brain plasticity with prism goggles, looking at neurons under the microscope and making neurons with pipecleaners.
SLIDES AND VIDEOS FROM PAST TEACHER WORKSHOPS:
“Connectomics: What, Why and How”
August 2012
Dr. Jeff Lichtman
Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences
Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
Powerpoint Presentation
Chapterized Video
“Fragile X Syndrome: A Window into Neurodevelopmental Disorders”
August 2012
Dr. Walter Kaufmann
Visiting Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Powerpoint Presentation
Chapterized Video
Please Note: Videos are compressed for internet delivery and thus meant for individual viewing, not projection. Viewing the presentation videos requires that you have the free flash player installed on your system. Videos are hosted by the Life Sciences Outreach Program website.
TEACHER-SUGGESTED EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES:
- Learning from Patients: The Science of Medicine HHMI Series
Lecture 4, Featuring Huda Zoghbi on “The Strength of Families: Solving Rett Syndrome”
http://media.hhmi.org/hl/03Lect4.html - Utah Genetics Website – Epigenetics – “Lick Your Rats”:
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/ - NIH Addiction Website
“The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology Through the Study of Addiction”:
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih2/addiction/default.htm - Teaching About the Teenage Brain:
A unit prepared by teachers from Lexington High School, presented at NSTA
https://sites.google.com/site/nsta2014lhsbrainunit/home - “The Secret Life of the Brain” PBS series: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/3d/
- Neuroscience for Kids: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
- PBS Scientific American Frontiers: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1101/; http://www.pbs.org/saf/1302/
- Society for Neuroscience: http://www.sfn.org/public-outreach/brain-awareness-week
- DNA Learning Center: http://www.dnalc.org
- McGill Website “The Brain from Top to Bottom”: http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/
- “The Teenage Brain in Search of Itself”
Resources Prepared by Another Life Sciences Teacher Participant, RoseMary McClain of Londondonderry High School
http://outreach.mcb.harvard.edu/teachers/summer05/rosemarymcclain/teenbrain.pdf - Project NEURON (Novel Education for Understanding Research on Neuroscience): https://neuron.illinois.edu/