Mancunians make sense of their brains
March 2006People from across Greater Manchester found out how well they know their own minds recently, when they attended University-run activities as part of Brain Awareness Week. For the third year running a children’s event was held at The Manchester Museum, and another for the general public at the Arndale Centre.
Interactive events
The Museum event was specially designed to enhance children’s understanding of how the brain works, with pupils from Altrincham Grammar School for Girls working with academics to devise and run the activities. At the Arndale shoppers were also asked to submit their views on the success of the event.Dr Ellen Poliakoff of the School of Psychological Sciences, one of the organisers, said: “They were highly interactive events, with activities focused on understanding the senses including visual illusions, reading Braille and working out the flavours of deceptively-coloured drinks. Having local schoolchildren help us devise them was invaluable in finding the most enjoyable and accessible ways of communicating scientific knowledge.
“One visitor commented that it was the best event she had ever attended at the Museum, and at the Arndale two girls were so impressed that they started demonstrating the activities themselves!”
Co-organiser Dr Stuart Allan of the Faculty of Life Sciences added, “We hope that some of the youngsters who took part will be encouraged to think about careers in science. It can have an image problem, but these events hopefully demonstrated that it’s not all about white coats and grey beards.”
Brain-shaped stress balls, Pickled Brain sweets and ‘Know Your Brain’ leaflets were handed out on the days, but the team says there was a serious side to the events.
“As well as how the brain interprets what we see and feel, we also illustrated how it’s put together and what goes wrong in conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and stroke,” explained Dr Allan. “During Brain Awareness Week last year we saw a widespread desire to know more about diseases like this which people often have direct experience of - and the research we are doing to help understand and treat them.”
