Community members had the chance to engage their minds while learning more about how the organ works during a Brain Symposium at Mill Creek Middle School on March 19.
The event – part of Brain Awareness week – was planned by Mill Creek faculty and students with help from Kent-Meridian High School, the University of Washington School of Nursing, University of Washington School of Education, Puget Sound Educational Service District and the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
Shannon Jephson-Hernandez, a Mill Creek science teacher, was one of the driving forces behind the symposium’s creation. She said she became interested in neuroscience after interning one summer for How Do I Learn?, an initiative funded by a grant from Blueprint for Neuroscience and administered by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
How Do I Learn? teaches middle school students how their brains work and equips teachers, parents and community members how to support learning.
“It was a dream of mine,” Jephson-Hernandez said of the symposium. “I found other teachers who are all passionate about teaching neuroscience to students.”
Jephson-Hernandez said a lot of emphasis has been put on learning about the brain this year at Mill Creek.
“Our focus has been on teaching students about their brain development, metacognition, growth mindset and many other brain-related topics,” she said.
Students conducted research on various aspects of the brain, which they presented during the symposium.
Eighth-grader Ashley Gomez took part in an experiment to see how well a person can read someone else’s emotions by looking at their eyes. The experiment found that adults do a better job of reading emotions than teenagers because their frontal lobes are more developed.
Gomez said she was surprised by the results.
“I didn’t think I would recognize so much (of the emotions),” she said.
Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities, such as brain games or art projects.
Girish Shindhe and his daughter, Grishma Shindhe, an eighth-grade student at Northwood Middle School, played Jenga, during the symposium. Girish Shindhe said he enjoyed learning more about the brain through the games and activities.
“There is a lot of stuff related to brains,” he said. “We don’t analyze how the brain works.”
One of the highlights of the event was the chance to see and touch an actual human brain.
Jenny Williamson, project director for How Do I Learn?, supplied four complete brains and pieces of a few others for the Brain Symposium.
“Most people have not seen a human brain,” Williamson said. “It is a wonderful resource to have to bring to community events.”
Lyna Man, a Mill Creek eighth-grader, said it was interesting to touch a human brain.
“It didn’t feel like I thought it would,” Man said.
Jephson-Hernandez deemed the symposium a success and said she hopes to make it an annual event.
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