Each year the UCLA Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience recognizes Brain Awareness Week (BAW). BAW aims to inspire interest in science and encourage university studies in low-income/low-opportunity K-12 students throughout Los Angeles County. Our annual BAW event brings together over 100 faculty and student volunteers at UCLA and supports over 350 K-12 student participants each year, and is hosted by the UCLA Brain Research Institute (BRI). Each day K-12 students arrive in front of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center to join Project Brainstorm leaders. The tour begins with a brief overview on the structure and function of the brain, and then graduate and undergraduate students conduct presentations on the brain, including some hands-on activities, and educational, age-appropriate presentations ranging from brain injury, two-point discrimination testing, sensation, synaptic function, hemispheric differences, motor system and lobe functions.
The students then visit various neuroscience research laboratories in the Gonda Center where they hear faculty and students present about their research on topics such as Autism, Parkinson’s disease, Memory and Neurotechnology. Regardless of grade level, students experience new insights into the fascinating neuroscience research environment at UCLA, often leading to a heightened interest in a scientific career.
Our 2025 Brain Awareness Week activities are scheduled to occur during the week of March 10-14, 2025. If you are a UCLA student, postdoc, staff or faculty and would like to volunteer for our event, please reach out to us at ucla.baw@gmail.com.
If you represent a school and would like to request a visit for BAW 2025, please email the program’s coordinator at ucla.baw@gmail.com.
Videos of past Brain Awareness Week:
More Brain Awareness Week resources can be found here: https://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/baw