We joined K-12 teachers and other education professionals at a teacher training workshop this weekend, to discuss how to engage students of all ages in learning about their brains…
Our NW Noggin volunteers, including Nate Allen, Rosie Salice, and Angela Johnson from WSU Vancouver, and Alex Voigt, Michael Miller, and Lindsay Miller from PSU, spoke with an enthusiastic crowd of educators about the many projects and activities they’ve designed and implemented in classrooms from McMinnville to Battleground over the last year…
For many teachers, this was their first opportunity to examine brains up close. We pointed out important structures on human and monkey cerebrums and, along with engaged and creative K-12 teachers, we made more of our popular, eye-catching neurons out of pipe cleaners…
Teachers were excited to hear about how we integrate arts projects into STEM education (from STEM to STEAM), to make learning more personally relevant and engaging, and offer students the chance to explore complex ideas about brain structure and function…
Many were also thrilled to hear about our website, and how we are now documenting visits with detailed descriptions of our activities, including useful links, handouts, lesson plans, and other classroom resources.
They were also very interested in our ongoing efforts to develop more engaging assessments than those typically offered through Common Core…
We now have many more classroom visit requests for the coming year!
Our volunteers also had the opportunity to hear from research scientists studying childhood development. They learned about the improved cognitive flexibility found in children raised in bilingual households from Sarah Lytle of the University of Washington, and the critical importance of proper nutrition to a healthy brain from Kent Thornburg of OHSU…
Once again, many thanks to Bobby Heagerty and Kate Stout of the Oregon Brain Institute for inviting us to participate (and also for all those leftover sandwiches for our undergraduate volunteers from WSU Vancouver and PSU :)…
