Brain Bee
Have you heard of the “Brain Bee”?
No, it’s nothing dangerous, but an infectious challenge going on at the GISW.
On Monday before Christmas Break nine brave competitors met in the Science Building for the first Brain Bee Challenge of the GISW.
Still don’t know what that is?
The International Brain Bee was founded in 1999 and is the world-wide neuroscience competition for high school students. The Brain Bee motivates students to learn about the brain, captures their imaginations, and is designed to inspire them to pursue neuroscience careers in order to help find cures for neurological and psychological disorders.There are currently about 175 Local Chapter Brain Bee coordinators in more than 50 countries across 6 continents who conduct competitions annually. The winner of each Local Chapter Bee is invited to attend their respective Regional Brain Bee competition, and the winner of each Regional Brain Bee is invited to compete in the International Brain Bee World Championship. The Championship takes place in a different country every year and this year it will be hosted by the FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Berlin, Germany.
Brain Bees test one's knowledge of the human brain and includes such topics as intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensations, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, addictions and brain research. The local competitions are in a question-and-answer format based on material from a downloadable free e-book. The championship competitions may also involve a neuroanatomy laboratory session with real human brains, neurohistology with microscopes, brain imaging identification and patient diagnosis with patient actors.
So who are the best Brain Bees of the GISW?
The determining question of our school competition was: “The biological clock is located in what part of the brain?” For the answer, please ask one of the following competitors:
First Place Winner: Aliana B. 9a
Second Place: Johannes L. 9a
Third Place: Theresa Sh. 9a
Aliana and Johannes won a tutoring day with a group of neuroscientists from Howard University and will represent our school at the D.C. Brain Bee in February 2018.
Congratulations and Good Luck!
Do you want to know more?
Our GISW group (9th – 12th grade) meets every Wednesday from 3:15 – 4:45pm in the Multipurpose Room of the Science Building with Ms. Colopy. If you are interested, please contact Ms. Colopy at scolopy@giswashington.org.
Steffi Colopy
