Sixteen-year-old Elina Natu is fascinated by the brain. “It’s what governs all of what we do, and we know so little about it,” said the Campbell High junior. “It’s really interesting to learn more about it.”
That curiosity led Marietta student to the Atlanta Brain Bee, the local arm of a national competition that draws high school students to an intellectual showdown around all things brain related. Last year, Natu finished third in the contest held at Emory University. A few months ago, she repeated that placement out of 30 students from 13 high schools across the state.
The event began with a 40-question written test, followed by a traditional bee question-and-answer session. The last round was a “Jeopardy!” style quiz for the top three competitors. Natu began preparing in January by cramming info from a textbook provided by the organizers.
“I read it and took notes,” she said. “The hardest part was just staying focused on what questions were being asked. It’s easy to forget your knowledge in the moment.”
Participants and science teachers are also invited to take place in workshops held the weeks before the contest. Alicia Lane, a neuroscience grad student at Emory, said the goal is to draw anyone who’s interested in learning about the subject.
“We tend to get mostly high school students, but often we’ll have seventh and eighth graders as well,” said Lane, who has volunteered with the event for five years. “The workshops, exams and competition are based on the book, but we like to provide resources for more information. Neuroscience is a complex topic.”
Getting people interested in that complexity is the bee’s mission, said Lane, who didn’t have that opportunity when she attended the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
“GSMST prepared us really well to go into STEM fields, and I assumed I’d go to medical school,” she said. “I didn’t know I could get a Ph.D. and do research. The Brain Bee is a valuable way for us to relate our science to the general public and to get young students interested in going into this field or to at least be aware of it.”
The bee is a collaboration between Emory and Georgia State. Jennifer Walcott, the project coordinator at GSU’s Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, said she’d like to have more local universities involved.
“We’ve reached out to others like Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott and the Morehouse School of Medicine, and we still have our eye on trying to grow those relationships,” she said. “It’s a great way for grad students to get involved in neuroscience outreach that also gets the public involved.”
Information about the Atlanta Brain Bee is online at sites.gsu.edu/brain-bee.
SEND US YOUR STORIES. Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
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