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Brain Awareness Week

March 2007

Pupils find out what psychological scientists do

Psychological scientists from the University explained their work to local secondary school pupils at an interactive event for this year’s Brain Awareness Week.

200 pupils took part in activities and talks with researchers from the School of Psychological Sciences, including renowned autism expert Dr Dougal Hare and brain-imaging specialist Dr Daniela Montaldi.
Each speaker brought along an object from their everyday work - including a rubber hand and a computer game - for the pupils to examine, and challenged them to guess whose was whose and what they might do with them*.
Dr Karen Lander, one of the organisers of the event, said: “We were keen to engage school children with science and research in an interactive way, and raise their awareness of what the psychological sciences involve.”
Co-organiser Dr Ellen Poliakoff added, “The pupils gained insights into what it would be like to work in this diverse field, which will be useful when making decisions about future study.”
The event was funded by Research Councils UK, and the pupils went home with a goody bag including more information, activities and a brain-shaped stress ball.
* Dr Richard Brown uses the rubber hand to find out about changes in body perception, and Dr Luke Jones found inspiration for his experiments on time perception whilst playing a computer game!

School children build giant brain

Pupils of all ages joined psychology and neuroscience lecturers, a science communicator and an artist to build a giant model brain at a series of workshops for Brain Awareness Week.

The project at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls saw the pupils build an outsized brain from chicken wire and plaster, and was designed to demonstrate how social interaction shapes our brains.

Project leader Dr Wael El-Deredy said: “The brain is fundamental to our ability to interact socially, so it was highly appropriate to build this giant version as a team experience.”

The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and the finished model displayed at the University’s Brain Awareness activity day at the Manchester Museum on 17 March.