Outreach: Grades K-8

Elementary School Outreach Program

Our goal is to bring basic concepts in neuroscience – e.g., how the brain and nervous system work – to students in grades K-8 in the Philadelphia area. We hope that our lessons will provide students with an early exposure to an emerging field, and also that we’ll get students excited to learn about science in general.

If you’d like to look over sample lesson plans that we recently brought to local schools, feel free to download “Build a Brain!”

Check out this incredible collection of neuroscience websites geared towards elementary school students: NeuroLinks for Kids.

If you are a teacher or educator interested in having us come to your school and teach a fun neuroscience lesson to your students, please contact the student leaders, Diana Pham (diana.pham@pennmedicine.upenn.edu) and Jordan Gross (jordan.gross@pennmedicine.upenn.edu).

Kids Judge!

Each year, University of Pennsylvania's undergraduate Biological Basis of Behavior program (BBB) sponsors the Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fair. The event is designed to teach neuroscience concepts to local third- and fourth-grade elementary school students in a fun, interactive, and exciting way. Penn undergraduates can volunteer to present stations and activities on a wide variety of topics, including taste, vision, brain lateralization, synaptic transmission, and even brain damage. Best part? The elementary school students get to walk around with clipboards and judge the exhibits! This activity puts them in the driver’s seat of their science education, and they always have a good time.  

As representatives of the graduate arm of neuroscience at Penn, NGG students are also invited to volunteer their time and input to bring Kids Judge! together each year.  It’s a great opportunity to teach basic neuroscience in an unconventional way–and typically, it’s a lot of fun!

More details here. Please contact the student leader, Nita Rome (nita.rome@pennmedicine.upenn.edu), with any questions.

Neuroscience coloring and activity pages

As part of NGG’s efforts to bring science education to people of all ages, neuroscientists have designed coloring pages for young students. Students, parents and teachers can print these pages for free to color at home and in the classroom. All of our coloring and activity pages are designed around basic themes in neuroscience, appropriate for elementary school students but fun for all ages! We hope that these pages can offer the youngest scientists an introduction to basic concepts in neuroscience and how real science is done in the lab.