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Suggested Activities for Partners and their Constituents
Call your local schools to see if they would invite area scientists/physicians to talk about the brain during Brain Awareness Week.
Survey your volunteers and staff for those with children in local schools. Ask each of them to organize a speaker for their child's class. Many times, there will be a school parent or relative with expertise in a brain-related field who would be happy to participate.
Contact the nearest discovery or life science museum to see if they will organize a workshop/program during Brain Awareness Week. Find out what programming they may have available on the brain.
Many K-12 science classes organize science fairs. Contact your local schools to determine if there will be any fairs during March. Volunteer your organization as a resource for students wishing to do science projects on topics related to the brain.
Contact your local university's departments of cellular biology, neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery, or psychiatry and request that they organize public programs on some aspect of brain research.
Organize your own activity as part of Brain Awareness Week. Find a speaker/speakers who can address the specific interest of your organization's constituents and the importance of brain research. (See FINDING A SPEAKER in this section)
Contact the Campaign Clearinghouse (tel: 212-401-1680; fax: 212-593-7623; e-mail: bawinfo@dana.org) to identify other BAW Partners in your area with whom your organization might "partner" in presenting a program.
Contact your local library to see what books or reference material about the brain are in its collection. Ask the librarians to organize a BAW display, or have your own display.
Organize a brain art, essay, or drama competition for local school children. Choose a topic that is relevant and of interest to younger audiences.
Create a traveling display or interactive exhibit on the brain and present it to K-12 schools in your community.
Set up and staff an exhibit table at a local hospital, doctors’ office, community center, or shopping mall and distribute brain-related information and materials. Contact the Campaign Clearinghouse for free bulk quantities of BAW stickers and Dana Alliance publications.
Coordinate a shadow program. Local high school students can shadow neuroscience faculty and students, and discover what it means to be a neuroscientist and why it is important to study the brain.
Use the Crossword Puzzles, Brain Quizzes, Anagrams, and Scrambles as fun activities for your audiences at the start of your program or during a break in your activities. (See PUZZLES Section)
Invite your local media representatives for a "brain-briefing" with your organization.
Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers about the importance of brain research to your constituents. Encourage your constituents to do the same.
Invite your Governor, state and federal legislators to participate in your events during Brain Awareness Week.
Ask your local or state representative to issue a proclamation about Brain Awareness Week. (See BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK PROCLAMATIONS in this section)
Write your members of Congress encouraging their support of brain research.
Write an article about Brain Awareness Week and the importance of brain research to your constituents for inclusion in your newsletter. Even articles which appear post-campaign will help spread the word about this important effort.
Include an advertisement about Brain Awareness Week in your newsletter.
Run a Brain Quiz or Mind Boggle in your newsletter. (See PUZZLES Section)
Display fact sheets and BAW event notices and other materials on bulletin boards in libraries, hospitals, local churches, synagogues, gymnasiums, grocery stores, parks and recreation departments, health clinics, universities and other public places. (See GRAPHICS section for a BAW flyer)
Include notices about Brain Awareness Week with employees' paychecks and newsletters. Use this as a means to promote BAW activities taking place in your community.
Team up with local businesses to sponsor classes and workshops for employees to raise awareness about brain function and fitness, brain diseases and disorders.
If your organization is a hospital, or has a working relationship with a hospital, recommend that grand rounds be scheduled during Brain Awareness Week to provide continuing education to physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals about breakthroughs in the treatment of neurological diseases and disorders.
If your organization is a research facility, consider holding an "open lab" for local high school and university audiences or the general public.
Organize a film festival, movies about the brain.
Submit a Pubic Service Announcement (PSA) about your Brain Awareness Week activities to your local radio station. (See information on PSAs in this section)
Get involved in the International Brain Bee, a live Q&A competition that tests high school students' knowledge of neuroscience. For more information, contact Dr. Norbert Myslinski, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, tel: 410-706-7258, E-mail: nmyslinski@umaryland.edu
