Brains Rule! Web site wins national awards

The Brains Rule! Neuroscience Exposition Project at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) recently received national recognition for its Web site.

The Web Marketing Association gave the project its “Standard of Excellence” Award for outstanding achievement in Web site development. The 2004 competition entries and judges came from more than 19 countries.

Brains Rule! also received the 2004 Web Smarty Award, a competition judged by selected international Web design experts.

The Brains Rule! Project is an innovative educational approach that makes teaching neuroscience accessible to children (and adults), while also deterring drug abuse. Its Web site is at www.brainsrule.com.

“We like staying on the cutting edge of design,” said Andrea Zardetto-Smith, principal investigator for the project and an assistant professor of psychology at UNO. “All of what we put together is centered on what would educate and involve children about the brain and neuroscience.”

This year, the Web site added a “veeper” character that welcomes visitors. A veeper is a 2-D image enhanced to become an animated, vocal 3-D character. “Cera Bellum,” a “veeper” brain, acts as a guide throughout the site and also provides “teaching moments.” The voice of Cera was featured in public service announcements that aired throughout Brain Awareness Week last spring on Omaha’s Radio Disney station, (1180 AM), courtesy of Waitt Radio.

Also during Brain Awareness Week, the Web site encouraged children to sign up as a neurotransmitter agent for B.R.A.I.N. (the Brains Rule! Agency of International Neurotransmission). By registering, they became eligible to win one of 10 Brain Awareness Week Party Paks and could participate in a special poll. A “Neuron Lab” game was also added, designed to teach the concept that neurons function through communication involving an electrical and a chemical component. Within the next month, a new game featuring a space theme will come online. It will expand on that lesson and teach about the detrimental effects of the drug known as "ecstasy" on how neurons communicate.

“We also added things for adults, too,” Zardetto-Smith said. “Those enhancements targeted teachers and neuroscience professionals who use the site as an educational resource. We included a news feed service where users can sign up to receive daily briefings on neuroscience-related topics.”

Brains Rule! is funded by a Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The Web site has also received awards from the Exploratorium as a “Exploratorium Cool Site” and another from Bonus.com.
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