Rhode Island to celebrate Brain Week
PROVIDENCE – The third annual Brain Week Rhode Island (brainweekri), takes place from March 10 to 18 in multiple locations around Rhode Island. Events scheduled include panels and presentations on the most current brain research, along with fun brain-themed activities for all ages. Most events are free of charge.
Brain Week coincides with International Brain Awareness Week (dana.org/baw), during which thousands of organizations and institutions worldwide organize creative learning activities in their communities to spread awareness of our extraordinary brains and the promise of brain research.
Organized by Providence-based national research advocacy organization, Cure Alliance for Mental Illness (CureAlliance.org), with major sponsorship from the Brown Institute for Brain Science( brown institute for brainscience) and the University of Rhode Island’s George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience (ryaninstitute).
Victoria Heimer-McGinn, chair of Brain Week Rhode Island 2018, said, “There is rapidly growing interest in the brain, how it works normally, what happens in disease and how to sort myth from fact.”
Activities during Brain Week Rhode Island include creative learning opportunities, expert panels, workshops, film screenings, dance for the aging and movement challenged, three story telling events, an art exhibit, visual and performing arts by people with autism, and two brain fairs with interactive science exhibits. Topics range from the basic science of just how the most complex object in the known universe works, to how it can be damaged or malfunction, with special events focused on obsessive compulsive disorder, migraine headaches, and Alzheimer’s disease, among others.
Brain Week offers an in- ventive and inspiring educational outreach program. Spearheaded by Heimer-McGinn and neuroscience professor John Stein, Brown neuroscientists will spend two weeks visiting dozens of Rhode Island PK-12 classrooms to inspire the next generation of brain scientists. The demos feature real human brains and other interactive learning activities, often in Spanish as well as English. Classroom visits also take place throughout the school year and can be booked online.
Paula Grammas, executive director of the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at URI, a sponsor, said, “Neuroscience is booming in Rhode Island, and our state’s reputation is growing as a center for brain research and treatment of neurological disease.”
Diane Lipscombe, Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science and Director, Brown Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, said, “We’re looking forward to another incredible Brain Week RI. This week-long celebration gives members of the community the chance to explore the wonders of the brain and also to understand and talk about brain illness through music, art, storytelling, and dance. The Brown Institute for Brain Science is thrilled to be a sponsor of the week’s activities.”
Brain Week RI continues with daily events for the whole family and culminates with two brain fairs: on Saturday, March 17, at Brown University, Engineering Research Center, 345 Brook St., Providence; and on Sunday, March 18, at the University of Rhode Island, Avedesian Hall, URI School of Pharmacy, 7 Greenhouse Road, Kingston.
The fairs will feature fun, interactive exhibits for the entire family that showcase the work of local neuroscience laboratories and other organizations.