It’s that time again. As the last vestiges of winter melt away, Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is just around the corner. The international campaign celebrates our immensely complex and fascinating brain with a week of neuroscience outreach and neuro-activities for brain enthusiasts of all ages.

What is Brain Awareness Week?

The Brain Awareness Campaign was started by The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 1996 to promote a better understanding of the brain as well as the types of work that neuroscientists do. This year throughout the month of March (and officially March 10-16), schools and communities from New York to New Zealand will organize interactive and informative neuroscience activities and workshops to engage students and encourage parents, educators, and other participants to be more involved with the neuroscience community.

Why is Brain Awareness Week important?

Now more than ever, it is vital for scientists to take a more active role in promoting the importance of scientific research. This includes dispensing scientific knowledge to society as a whole as well as supporting science education for the next generation of scientists. BAW provides a great opportunity to teach children (and adults) about basic neuroscience concepts, inform the general public about notable advances in neuroscience, and advocate for federal funding of science research. Scientists absolutely need non-scientists and lawmakers to be willing to invest in science research and education. The best way to ensure that support is by working to increase science literacy throughout society and to raise awareness of the profound effect that scientific breakthroughs have on our everyday life, through outreach initiatives like BAW.

How to get involved

It’s not too late to get involved. Neuroscientists might consider hosting tours of their labs or visiting a local school or library to give a kid-friendly neuroscience lecture. Educators can invite neuroscientists to visit their classrooms and teach students all about the brain. Parents can plan simple and fun brain activities that they can do with their children. Undergraduate and graduate students can find out if their schools are looking for volunteers to develop ideas for activities or visit schools in their city. If tight class or experiment schedules prevent them from participating in the activities, they could also try blogging or tweeting interesting brain facts or bits of neuroscience history during of BAW (for example, dispelling some common myths about the brain or profiling influential neuroscientists). And don’t forget to follow the fun on Twitter, #brainweek!

For more information on how to participate in Brain Awareness Week, check out the sites below:

Resources for planning BAW activities and events

Free literature about the brain and suggestions for BAW activities for every age from The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives

Sample BAW activities from Society for Neuroscience

Neuroscience activities for children, courtesy of University of Washington

Neuroscience history

Milestones in neuroscience research

Important people and breakthroughs in neuroscience history

Influential women in neuroscience

Brain fun facts

Facts about the human brain

The brain by the numbers

Human brain anatomy

Evolution on the human brain

—A.I.