Ten enthusiastic, multi-state, undergraduate NW Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University spent an entire day at Cascade Middle School in Vancouver, Washington – home to 900 curious and adventurous 6th through 8th graders!
Our undergraduates gained tremendous real world experience in these classrooms, and enjoyed the chance to practice their teaching skills, by explaining how neurons respond to various stimuli, carry electrical messages, communicate with each other chemically across synapses, and wire into complex networks capable of everything from basic reflex responses to higher level thinking, perception and decision making…
Students asked excellent questions about everything from the neural basis of dream states and memories, to how exactly drugs like alcohol can influence your brain, and behavior…
Artist Jeff Leake led each classroom in creating their own works of art – he asked the students to arrange colored lobes and write about, or illustrate, various abilities at least partly dependent on neural networks found in these different areas of the brain…
Our student teachers from WSU Vancouver and PSU worked individually with students from Cascade, showing them real human cerebrums, pointing our visible structures, and answering questions about the functional associations of various brain regions…
Major kudos to our talented and accomplished undergraduate volunteers, who are developing strong skills in teaching and outreach, and have enthused a great many young people in our public schools about pursuing neuroscience, psychology and art… 🙂