Noggin loves working with Kelly Love, the Director of Community Relations at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver, to offer brain education through play and art at their annual Healthy Kids Fair..!
LEARN MORE FROM LAST YEAR: Igniting interest with Blaze and Brains!
The Fair offers area residents a chance to buy inexpensive bicycle helmets (Noggins love to bike!), perform “surgery” on a (stuffed animal) duck, check out the inside of an ambulance (without suffering injuries) – and of course talk research and examine real brains!
Kelly tells us that our Noggin table is always one of the Health Fair’s biggest draws, and that many of the promotional pictures they use come from our website… 😎
LEARN MORE: Healthy Kids Fair set for Saturday at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center
We brought our energized crowd of ten volunteers to their busy hospital lobby on Saturday morning…
Our participants included Joey Seuferling, the Noggin Resource Council member for health care and hospital outreach, Jessica Patching-Bunch, Resource Council member for Communications, Sulema Rodriguez, Council member for NIH BUILD EXITO at Portland State University, and Christina Williams, our newest Council member for Instagram!
LEARN MORE: Joey Seuferling: Changing the world, one brain at a time
LEARN MORE: Brain Fair Diary (Sulema Rodriguez): Presenting @ PARC
LEARN MORE: Christina Williams: Making Connections Through NW Noggin
We also welcomed seasoned science communicators Gaile Parker, Leota Wolford, Jesse Hamlin and Uyen Nguyen from Psychology at Portland State University, and Mallory Heurta (and her daughter Bella) and Ruth Marigomen, graduates of the Vancouver branch campus of WSU.
Noggin Arts Coordinator Jeff Leake quickly drew a neural masterwork on poster board…
While Sulema, Leota, Uyen and Jesse attached Mindflex electrodes for a series of “brain battles” that continued unabated all day..!
Brain cells transmit important information with electricity (moving charges), and kids were absolutely fascinated to discover that by changing how they thought they could alter their own brain currents – and that changes could be measured (crudely!) at the surface of the scalp!
LEARN MORE: Mindflex Duel
LEARN MORE: Blue Mountain Brains!
We explained that big changes in thinking – switching from an intense external focus on that moving game piece, for example, to remembering what you ate for dinner last night, could more dramatically shift activity, from what are termed task-positive brain networks to “default…”
LEARN MORE: Modulatory interactions between the default mode network and task positive networks in resting-state
From PSU undergraduate Uyen Nguyen: “A lot of kids were fascinated about the idea of moving the ball with the use of their minds (to be honest, I was too!), and I think this was no doubt the highlight of my day. Between the challenge, I could hear cheering from the background either from parents or from the participant’s friends – ‘think, think harder, use your brain!’
Students also crafted beautiful neurons of their own, with help from Jesse, Jessica and Jeff…
DISCOVER: Pipe Cleaner Neuron Project Background
CREATE: How to make a pipe cleaner neuron
WATCH: Making pipe cleaner neurons in the classroom
And a huge draw, of course, were Noggin’s BioGift* brains!
(*we’ll have more on the way soon!)
This is always a great time for wide ranging discussions about the brain and behavior. From volunteer Gaile Parker: “I had in-depth conversations with adults about addiction, particularly opioid addiction, and how different drugs affect the brain, especially the developing one. A few people shared how family members had experienced brain health issues, including problems with the cerebellum. One visitor’s grandmother had recently died and they’d donated her body to BioGift – local Portland organization that provides some of our brains for outreach.”
Even Blaze – the Portland Trail Blazers Trail Cat – born “in the towering pines of the Oregon Cascades” – stopped by to check out our Noggins… 😎
Many thanks to Kelly for inviting our Noggin volunteers! We look forward to connecting area research and educational institutions, including PSU, OHSU, and our additional outreach collaborators to future Legacy fairs and events!
