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During our final sessions (7/21 and 7/23), students were able to ask questions to Dr. Sabine Kastner, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, whose lab is studying vision, attention, and awareness using neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques. Dr. Kastner answered students' questions about her work, explained why neuroscience is such an important field to study, and gave advice to young students interested in STEM. Dr. Kastner has also cofounded a research journal for kids ages 8-14 that publishes current research in a variety of fields. Here is the link for the journal so that you can have access to even more educational resources for students interested in STEM: https://kids.frontiersin.org/. Thank you to Dr. Kastner for taking the time to speak with students and for all of your support with this program. Below, you will find a YouTube video that is a compilation of the Q&A sessions from the series. Please feel free to like and share the video so that more people can access this resource! Thank you, and enjoy!
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During Session 5, many students were lucky to learn from a professional neuroscientist, Dr. Hussaini, about Alzheimer's disease and his research regarding this disease and brain aging. Dr. Hussaini is currently a professor at Columbia University where his lab is working with rodents to identify neurons that are not functioning well and/or correctly during the early stages of Alzheimer’s and is looking at ways to block the progression of the disease. In the attached videos, you can see his presentation along with a short Q&A session with the students. The Reign of the Brain students are extremely grateful to have been able to learn from Dr. Hussaini, and thank you to him for taking the time to prepare and teach in this week's session. Below you can also find his email address where you can contact him to ask any questions you have about his presentation, his work, or any neuroscience-related inquiries! Recording of Group 3 Session 5 Recording of Group 4 Session 5 Dr. Hussaini's email address: sah2149@cumc.columbia.edu
During this week's sessions (7/14 and 7/16) we discussed brain diseases, illnesses, protection, and safety. Specifically, we learned about concussions, strokes, and dementia - what they are, their symptoms and warning signs, treatments, and prevention and safety. You can find the slideshow used for this session and other resources (such as a video created to explain the role of CSF and the skull in concussions and a Kahoot! review game) below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these interactive slides and flashcards, and I held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource! 
https://create.kahoot.it/share/brain-diseases-illnesses-and-safety/ad9afda8-1d51-4fcf-a56f-c3a4c0ef51ca
In this week's session (7/9), we learned about more parts of the brain and the neuron. Specifically, we discussed the three parts of the brain stem, what makes up the hindbrain, the limbic system, basal ganglia, and the two glands in the CNS along with the neuron's nucleus, myelin sheath, axon terminal, synapse, action potential, and neurotransmitters. You can find the slideshow used for this session and other resources (such as flashcards explaining many of the topics covered in this session and instructions for the games during the session) below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these interactive slides and flashcards, and I held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
In this week's session (7/7), we learned about more parts of the brain and the neuron. Specifically, we discussed the three parts of the brain stem, what makes up the hindbrain, the limbic system, basal ganglia, and the two glands in the CNS along with the neuron's nucleus, myelin sheath, axon terminal, and synapse. You can find the slideshow used for this session and other resources (such as flashcards explaining many of the topics covered in this session and instructions for the games during the session) below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these interactive slides and flashcards, and I held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
For this week's sessions (6/30 and 7/2), I decided to combine the grades' materials because the information was very similar in both sessions. We discussed the occipital lobe, the cerebellum, the brain stem, and the spinal cord in session 3. In order for our vision to work, our brain uses two different pathways (dorsal and ventral) between our eyes and occipital lobe to determine where and what we are seeing. We also took a look at optical illusions and discovered that our brains like to compare and predict what we see, often leading us to perceive what we see wrongly. In understanding the functions of the cerebellum (balance, movement, and sending messages to the rest of the body), we learned how the cerebellum is the "crossing point" of information from the forebrain to reach the correct side of the body. We also played Simon says (with a twist!) to demonstrate understanding of this relationship, and you can find the information for that below in the attachments. Students learned what involuntary actions are (functions that we do not have to think about to perform) in order understand the responsibilities of the brain stem. With this new information, we also discussed how the brain sits in a sack of cerebrospinal fluid and is cushioned by it and the meninges. Finally, we discussed how the spinal cord connects to the brain stem at a hole in the skull called the foramen magnum and how the vertebral column is set up to protect the spinal cord. We then played a Kahoot game to review everything we have been learning in the past two sessions. You can try it out and share it using the link provided below. Overall, I hope that students learned something new about their central nervous system and spinal cord, and I am excited for our next session! These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these slides interactive and held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
https://create.kahoot.it/share/the-central-nervous-system/03d3c7af-ac3b-404b-8578-a1bf78565623
In this activity, you will be creating a model of the vertebral column (your spinal cord and the vertebrae that surround it). Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions!
Here are some other examples that students in the program created: 
In this session (Thursday 6/25), we dove deeper into the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes through interactive activities and an experiment! We discussed each function in more detail and how these three lobes work together all of the time. Specifically, we discussed the frontal lobe functions of problem-solving through riddles and a problem-solution scenario and the connections between speech and emotion through jokes. We performed a small lab involving different-temperature water to establish that the way that we perceive stimuli depends on the circumstances. To dive deeper into the temporal lobe, we learned about a couple of auditory illusions and discussed the three different types of memory (working, implicit, and explicit), along with the connection between memory and emotion. Finally, we connected these three lobes through discussing the process in which language is analyzed, including the temporal-parietal junction. We also reviewed the guidelines for the program's cumulative neuroscience-based project, which are attached below. Overall, I hope that the students were able to enjoy learning more about these lobes' functions and are excited for next week! You can find the slideshow used for this session below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these slides interactive and held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
In this session (Tuesday 6/23), we dove deeper into the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes through interactive activities and an experiment! We discussed each function in more detail and how these three lobes work together all of the time. Specifically, we discussed the frontal lobe functions of problem-solving through a problem-solution scenario and the connections between speech and emotion through jokes. We performed a small lab involving different-temperature water to establish that the way that we perceive stimuli depends on the circumstances. To dive deeper into the temporal lobe, we learned about a couple of auditory illusions and discussed the three different types of memory (working, implicit, and explicit). Finally, we connected these three lobes through music. We also reviewed the guidelines for the program's cumulative neuroscience-based project, which are attached below. Overall, I hope that the students were able to enjoy learning more about these lobes' functions and are excited for next week! You can find the slideshow used for this session below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these slides interactive and held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
Today (6/18), I held Session 1 (An Introduction to the Nervous System) for students grades 4, 5, and 6, and I was, again, blown away by how much they already know about neurons and the brain! We talked about the mnemonics mentioned in the previous post and went further in depth about the parts of the neuron (dendrites, soma, and axon) and their functions. One thing that the students found especially fun was an activity I am calling "Blind Guess." Each student had an object that they hid from their camera, and they described it in 3 sentences. Then, the other students had to guess their object. We had some creative ones such as a red panda stuffed animal, a Rubik's cube, an oven, and a high-tech camera! Overall, I hope that the students are even more excited for next week after being exposed to only an introduction to the nervous system! You can find the slideshow used for this session along with some of the flashcards that students created based on their understanding of this session's materials below this text. These educational resources are free for anyone to use, and I am excited to share them with you! I utilized the platform PearDeck to make these slides interactive and held the session on the Zoom platform. Comment or use the "contact" tab to let me know how you liked this session/resource!
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