Montreal Brain Awareness Week - 2010 Synapse Mentorship Award Recipient - Group
Montreal Brain Awareness Week, coordinated by a committee of graduate students, was launched in 1998 as a way for Montreal-based undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students to show through a variety of programs how useful brain research can be for people of all ages. Over 150 members of this group, from McGill University, Concordia University, Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal, have provided lessons in the third week of March that involve:- high school presentations (where over 7500 Montreal students have learned about brain functions and the effects of drugs on the central nervous system);
- Montréal Brain Bee competition (where over 20 high school students have studied about neuroscience through use of a 1st and 2nd year university textbook and then used that knowledge to compete against students from other Canadian cities for the Canadian Brain Bee title);
- open houses (where high school students and the general public can, through tours of research labs, learn about the brain’s functions, senses, intelligence and memory);
- Scientific Cafés (where high school students and the public can also pose questions to a panel of experts regarding an issue that involves the brain); and
- the distribution of a short film on the brain to schools across Canada (where 60,000 students have seen the effects of drugs on the human brain).