Brains Rule at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

Amy Wiseman

“Neuroscience is fun.” “Neuroscience is easy to learn.” Neuroscience is interesting.”

Approximately 200 sixth graders from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Milan, and Saline were surveyed with questions like these before attending Brains Rule! at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum on Friday, October 7. The students were brought in from the various school districts to attend the neuroscience fair, which promotes learning about the brain and nervous system through exciting and interactive exhibits. Brains Rule! is a national event that began at the University of Nebraska Omaha. It was sponsored locally by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, Pfizer, the American Association of University Women, and the University of Michiganfirst in a relaxing environment (soft lighting, classical music), then re-tested them in a distracting environment (p.

18 groups of student attended various exhibits throughout the museum, including “Rock, Relax, Remember”, which tested student’s memories ulsing electronic music, strobe lights, and glow sticks.) Students found that when relaxed, they could remember as many as nine of the objects shown to them, as opposed to three or four when distracted.
“It’s harder to concentrate when there’s lots of things going on,” said Samar Niazi, 10, from Saline. Although Niazi enjoyed many of the exhibits—“There was a cool one where we talked about the lens of the eye and how the brain can trick what you see.”—she said that “Rock, Relax, Remember” was her favorite.

Other popular exhibits included “Protect Your Melon”, where melons were dropped to simulate the effects of not wearing protective headgear, and “Brain Toss”, where students wore goggles to distort their vision and tossed beanbags at a target. The goggles shifted the wearer’s vision by twenty percent. "Brain Toss" was voted the winner of the 5th annual Brains Rule by the students. Chris Pacheco and Emile Bruneau, from the University of Michigan , have participated every year in the event and were so-chairs of this year's event.

“That’s really weird!” exclaimed Jessica LaLone, 11, from Milan after trying her hand at the beanbag toss. Taylor Koepfle, 11, also enjoyed the exhibit. “You couldn’t see anything!” she said. “It was cool.”