K-12 Neuroscience Education Outreach Program: Interactive Activities for Educating Students about Neuroscience.

The University of New England's Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences has developed a successful and growing K-12 outreach program that incorporates undergraduate and graduate/professional students. The program has several goals, including raising awareness about fundamental issues in neuroscience, supplementing science education in area schools and enhancing undergraduate and graduate/professional students' academic knowledge and skill set. The outreach curriculum is centered on core neuroscience themes including: Brain Safety, Neuroanatomy, Drugs of Abuse and Addiction, Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, and Cognition and Brain Function. For each theme, lesson plans were developed based upon interactive, small-group activities. Additionally, we've organized our themes in a "Grow-up, Grow-out" approach. Grow-up refers to returning to a common theme, increasing in complexity as we revisit students from early elementary through high school. Grow-out refers to integrating other scientific fields into our lessons, such as the chemistry of addiction, the physics of brain injury and neuronal imaging. One of the more successful components of our program is our innovative team-based model of curriculum design. By creating a team of undergraduate, graduate/professional students and faculty, we create a unique multi-level mentoring opportunity that appears to be successful in enhancing undergraduate students' skills and knowledge. Preliminary assessments suggest that undergraduates believe they are enhancing their content knowledge and professional skills through our program. Additionally, we're having a significant, short-term impact on K-12 interest in science. Overall, our program appears to be enhancing the academic experience of our undergraduates and exciting K-12 students about the brain and science in general.