Post written by PSU Noggin undergraduate Austin Howard
It was an overcast Monday morning, a day for getting back into the daily grind. However, for a group of middle school students from the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes it was anything but. Instead, OHSU’s auditorium was awash with volunteers (including our intrepid Noggin members from PSU: Jennifer Teachworth, Jason Koch, and myself) engaging this busload of kids with a boatload of science. As part of OHSU’s larger program, our team talked with the students about the effects of alcohol on the human body, not least the brain. All this under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Mark Rutledge-Gorman of the Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC).
As the students and chaperones milled about the various booths, our team was busy giving the kids some hands-on experience of alcohol’s effects with the help of some high-powered “drunk goggles.” They had to walk the line, performing a similar test to that required of drunk-driving suspects. These shenanigans were accompanied by a touch-screen body map which displayed the effects of alcohol consumption. Students could adjust the character’s age, weight, sex, genetic predisposition, and amount of alcohol consumed. This SIMS-like model has made its way to many classrooms in underserved communities, both urban and rural.
This isn’t the first time alcohol research and education have brought OHSU and Northwest Noggin into contact. NW Noggin recently had a booth at the OHSU Brain Lecture Series talk given Dr. Kathy Grant as part of the OHSU Brain Awareness Lecture series. There, Dr. Grant outlined many of the negative aspects of maintaining high blood alcohol levels over long periods as well as some potential health benefits of moderate consumption. The PARC has also offered welcome support for Noggin efforts to reach students in Portland and Vancouver Public Schools, and recently awarded a grant for engagement by our graduate and undergraduate participants at Skyview High School in Vancouver this May…
At the end of the day, we hope to have given these students a thirst for knowledge…
Special Thanks to: Mark Rutledge-Gorman for inviting us to participate!