SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK
Interested in planning a BAW event, but not sure what you can do? Here are some ideas on how to get your organization and community involved in the campaign, including suggestions for collaborating with other organizations.
Special Event Ideas for BAW’s Fifteenth Anniversary Campaign, March 15-21, 2010
Would your organization like to sponsor a new or special event in honor of BAW’s fifteenth anniversary? The BAW Campaign Headquarters has some ideas that we hope you’ll incorporate in your BAW 2010 celebrations.
- Sponsor art and/or literature competitions on brain-related themes for people of all ages. Challenge members of your community to use their creative skills and express their thoughts and feelings about the brain through drawing, painting, sculpture, essays, or poetry. Submit photographs or electronic files of your winning entries to bawinfo@dana.org for posting on our BAW Web site. We will showcase your submissions and celebrate the “Art of the Brain” within the Photo Gallery and other sections of the site. We also encourage the many BAW partners that have incorporated art and literature competitions in their BAW programming over the years to submit their winning entries from past campaigns as a way to look back on and celebrate the creativity and innovation that have characterized BAW events since the campaign’s inception in 1996. Please send your photographs or files to bawinfo@dana.org.
- Get BAW proclaimed in your community. Ask your local, state, or national government to issue a proclamation about BAW. Invite the official to whom you made the request to present the proclamation at a public event that offers the potential for visibility and press coverage. Visit the BAW Web site for tips on securing proclamations. Submit electronic files of your proclamations (including those from past BAW campaigns) to bawinfo@dana.org for posting on our BAW Web site.
- Organize a screening of the Staying Sharp DVD Program. In 2010, the Staying Sharp DVD Program will be available for order as a BAW fulfillment item. The program uses footage of neuroscience experts from live Staying Sharp forums to address topics such as changes in the aging brain, memory, and the science behind the healthy brain practices that may help us stay sharp. When paired with the Staying Sharp booklets and bookmarks, the DVD makes an excellent program in brain fitness and successful aging. Click here to preview the DVD.
Additional Event Ideas
- Visit local schools to present lectures, hands-on demonstrations, and experiments about the brain to students.
- If your organization is a school, consider incorporating daily brain facts or brain fitness tips in your school announcements during B AW or creating a bulletin board display about the brain.
- Contact your local schools to determine if there will be any science fairs during March. Volunteer your organization as a resource for students wishing to do science projects on topics related to the brain.
- Organize a brain art, essay, or drama competition for local schoolchildren. Choose a topic of relevance and interest to a younger audience.
- Create a traveling display or interactive exhibit on the brain and present it to schools in your community.
- Coordinate a workshop for school teachers on a brain-related topic.
- If you are a science teacher, incorporate BAW into your curriculum by assigning students a brain-related project.
- Coordinate a shadow program. Local high school students can shadow neuroscience faculty and students, and discover what it means to be a neuroscientist and why it is important to study the brain.
- Get involved in the International Brain Bee, a live Q&A competition that tests the neuroscience knowledge of high school students. For more information, visit the official International Brain Bee Web site or contact Dr. Norbert Myslinski of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry at e-mail: nmyslinski@umaryland.edu.
- Partner with a science museum to present exhibits, demonstrations, hands-on experiments, and exercises about brain structure, function, and diseases and disorders. Find out what programming they may already have available on the brain.
- If your organization is a research facility, consider holding an “open lab” for local high school and university audiences or the general public.
- Coordinate a lecture or series of lectures about the brain.
- Organize a health fair. Invite local organizations to staff exhibit booths, distribute materials, offer free health screenings, and more.
- Contact your local radio and television stations to incorporate a brain-related segment into their programming schedule during BAW. Volunteer your organization as a resource for speakers, topics, and content.
- Set up and staff an exhibit table at a local hospital, doctors’ office, community center, or shopping center and distribute brain-related information and materials.
- Ask your local library to organize a BAW display with books and reference material about the brain, or offer to set up your own display.
- Organize a film festival featuring movies about the brain.
- Invite your local media representatives for a “brain-briefing” with your organization.
- Team up with local businesses to sponsor classes and workshops for employees to raise awareness about brain function and fitness, brain diseases and disorders.
If you are not able to plan a BAW event, consider the following ways to participate in the campaign by informing your community about the importance of brain research:
- Ask your local or state representative to issue a BAW proclamation. (See Brain Awareness Week Proclamations)
- Write your local government representatives encouraging their support of brain research.
- Write an article about BAW and the importance of brain research for your newsletter. Even articles which appear post-campaign will help spread the word about this important effort.
- Include notices about BAW with employees’ paychecks and newsletters. Use this as a means to promote BAW activities taking place in your community.
- Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers about the importance of brain research to your constituents. Encourage your constituents to do the same.
- Include an advertisement about BAW in your newsletter.
- Run a Brain Quiz or Mind Boggle in your newsletter. (See Puzzles and Graphics)
To read about successful BAW events, visit Partner Reports or download the 2008 BAW Summary Report. To view photographs from past BAW events, visit the Photo Gallery.
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