SfN Hosts DC Brain Bee
High school students from the Washington, DC, metro area tested their knowledge about the brain and nervous system during the regional Brain Bee on February 10. The competition aims to motivate secondary school students to learn about the brain and inspire them to pursue careers in the sciences.
“In the Washington, DC, area we have such a mix of people; we have people whose parents work in NIH and we have inner-city kids who are thinking, ‘Neuroscience? I can’t do neuroscience,’” says Benjamin Walker, assistant professor of psychology at Georgetown University and a judge for the DC Brain Bee. “It’s fun to see these really bright students getting fired up about the brain.”
Soren Christensen, a ninth-grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., bested 17 other students to become the DC Brain Bee winner. Christensen said he enjoys learning about the “future possibilities of neuroscience with medication and treatment” for disorders such autism. He will go on to compete in the U.S. National Brain Bee on March 20-22 in Baltimore.
The Society for Neuroscience hosts the DC Brain Bee and is a sponsor of the U.S. and international Brain Bees, founded by Norbert Myslinski of the University of Maryland. SfN also arranges a scientific laboratory internship for the U.S. and international winners.
For more information about the DC Brain Bee, contact baw@sfn.org.
