Hundreds of transition year students are expected at a public exhibit in NUI Galway for Brain Awareness Week.
Staff and students at NUI Galway are putting on the ‘My Amazing Brain’ exhibit with interactive displays to teach people more about how the brain works and how to keep it safe.
Over 300 transition year students from secondary schools around the country are expected to come and learn more about the brain and nervous system.
There will be stations exploring hand-eye coordination through mirror writing, colour perception, optical illusions, brain waves using EEG and brain cell histology using microscopy.
In addition staff and postgraduates students from the Galway Neuroscience Centre are preparing a information posters with information for a quiz that will be held on the day.
The posters cover a variety of illnesses including: epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, pain, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury.
Dr Una Fitzgerald, Director of the Galway Neuroscience Centre at NUI Galway, said the centre has been proud to partner in this event for the past 10 years.
“The importance of this outreach activity cannot be over-emphasised,” she insisted.
“With NUI Galway’s ‘My Amazing Brain’ interactive exhibition and the Brain Bee’ general brain knowledge quiz, we aim to peak the public’s interest in all things relating to the brain and we hope to inspire the next generation of researchers.”
The BB quiz is an international neuroscience competition for secondary school students.
Its purpose is to inspire interest in neuroscience and hopefully encourage young people to pursue a career that furthers that field.
The world will always need more doctors and researchers to treat and find cures for more than 1,000 neurological and psychological disorders that afflict humanity, many of which are still poorly understood.
