Prior research has shown the significant and positive impact that community outreach and involvement can have on a student's educational experience. The outreach component of this research project involved two elementary schools in Martinez (CA) and one middle school in Pleasant Hill (CA). Our neuroscience station – The Human Brain on Drugs – discussed the physiological effects of stimulants and depressants on the human brain. Each station began with a three‐minute pretest, ten‐minute poster presentation and activity, and three minute post‐test. Additionally, students were given a learning experience survey at their final station. After the outreach activity was finished, all qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and scored for statistical analysis. The results from all three schools showed statistically significant increases in mean test scores from pretest to post test. Overall, the results provided some insight on the importance of educational outreach and its effectiveness to enhance a student's learning experience.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

A concussion education program was designed to educate children ages 10 to 12 to help prevent pediatric traumatic brain injury that impacts 475,000 children in the United States each year. Short‐ and long‐term cognitive impairments and physical and psychological symptoms are seen after traumatic brain injury or concussions. Thus, it is important to educate children about what a concussion is, what the signs and symptoms are, and what to do if they sustain a concussion so they can get the medical care they need.Goals of this program were for participants to be able to define a concussion, recognize the signs and symptoms of a concussion, what to do in an event of sustaining a concussion, and evaluate the efficacy of our concussion education outreach.We created a brief concussion education program that includes an informative presentation, hands‐on activities to reinforce the material discussed and pre‐ and post‐tests to evaluate the efficacy of our concussion education experience. We taught a total of 207 fifth and seventh grade students about concussions using our education program.Results obtained from quantitative data from the pre‐ and post‐test revealed that the students who participated in our concussion education showed highly statistically significant increases in their knowledge on concussions after participating in our concussion education activity. Qualitative data from the student experience survey administered at the end of the Brain Outreach Program revealed that the participating students found our concussion education station fun, enjoyable, and easy to understand. Therefore, educational outreach programs such as the one executed are effective in engaging and raising awareness on concussions.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

A teacher training workshop was designed to instruct elementary school teachers regarding basic neuroscience content and provide guidelines for planning anatomical life science units for the classroom. This introduction of neuroanatomical sciences allows teachers to receive appropriate training in neuroanatomy, comply with the National Science Education standards, and create classroom activities that will encourage children to investigate topics regarding neuroscience.Two half day weekend workshops were implemented which included a neuroscience lecture. Following the lecture, teachers participated in a hands‐on laboratory session filled with activities and experiments that can be replicated in the elementary school classroom.To measure the impact and effectiveness of the workshop, participants were administered a pre and post test regarding key ideas presented in the workshop. Participants also filled out a survey rating the workshop's overall effectiveness, and course content. There was a statistically significant improvement from pretest to posttest (p< 0.0001).These workshops provided necessary teacher instruction in the anatomical sciences which promotes student interest in neuroscience.Supported by AAA Education Outreach Grant

Community members are becoming more proactive in their health care decisions, and many individuals are seeking more information regarding the function and maintenance of various body systems, disease prevention, and lifestyle choices that can impact their personal health. In turn, many universities have mission statements and goals to create community connections and provide educational programs on various health related topics. To meet the needs of community and university members, educational outreach programs can be established. Several outreach programs regarding brain health and safety have been created for Oakland area school children in grades K‐12 and an educational brain event for families and community members. The K‐12 outreach programs are designed within the needs of the curriculum content and grade level of the students. Classroom teachers are consulted for topic requests and length (time) of program that fit into their lesson plans and schedules. Programs vary from 1 hour to several hours to a 4 week mini course and cover topics ranging from neuroanatomy to sensory systems to drug effects on the nervous system.Saturday outreach events are designed to be family friendly and serve to educate both children and adults through interactive hands‐on poster stations presented by university students and lectures by selected invited guest speakers. Assessments from all programs are administered in the form of pre and post tests for K‐12 programs and surveys for participants of the Saturday community educational events.

The effectiveness of scientific educational outreach among children has been difficult to measure because of many confounding variables such as teaching style, material taught and many other factors. To find clarity with this, an experiment was designed involving two 5th grade classes from Martinez, CA, John Swett Elementary and Las Juntas Elementary, and one 7th grade class from Pleasant Hill, CA, Sequoia Middle School. The experiment entailed using an educational poster with characters from a well‐known Disney movie, Inside Out, to teach students about emotional regulation and control guided by the Limbic system and its main components (hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus). All three schools were approached using the same protocol: a pre‐test, an educational portion with the poster, a hands‐on activity, and then a post‐test. The hands‐on activity, creating emotion stress balls, was specifically meant to reinforce the material to the children and give them a broader understanding of how to positively deal with their own emotions. In addition to the quantitative pre‐and‐post‐test, a qualitative survey was also administered using the Likert scale to assess how the poster was perceived, the ease of understanding and other factors. The 5th grade students showed a statistically significant quantitative improvement between their pre‐and‐post‐test average results and the 7th graders showed a higher qualitative mean score, indicating they had a better appreciation of the outreach.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.