Brain Power
Brain Power
November 13, 2012 at 1:48 PM
A strong link has been developed with the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. At the end of Term 3, a select group of Year 10 students had the opportunity to visit the Centre for Brain Research, a neuroscience laboratory and learning library. Students heard leading neuroscientist, Professor Faull speak passionately about the workings of the brain, spoke to neuroscientists about their work in the laboratory and examined case studies and brain specimens in the library. Students also had the experience of holding a real palatinate brain.
The aim is to maintain close ties with the Centre for Brain Research to ensure that these Year 10 students continue to be enriched in Science as they progress through school and beyond. Next year, this group will have the opportunity to be part of Brain Day and the New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge.
Earlier this year, a team of six Year 11 College students, including Shuo Tang, competed against teams from all around the North Island in the New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge, to determine who had the ‘best brain’. Shuo Yang, wrote in Tall Poppies November issue that the Brain Bee Challenge ‘gives College students the chance to learn some fundamental information about the brain, and proposes to us the idea of perhaps further pursuing neurology’ Speaking about the competition itself, she commented that, ‘There is no real shortcut to learning; you just have to pay the effort and time, but I think it’s important to have fun. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about how the brain functions.’
