To wrap up our mini study of the brain, we were thrilled to welcome a special guest – one of our classroom parents, a neuroscientist, along with her team of graduate students! They led our class through four hands-on stations that helped students explore how our amazing brains make sense of the world, learn new things, and stay safe. The 4 stations they participated in were:

1.  Hypothesis Testing: Students watched short “biological motion” videos and made predictions about what they were seeing, learning how the brain gathers clues and tests hypotheses when information is incomplete.

2. Learning in Action: Wearing vision-shifting goggles, students tried to play catch with soft toys. Soon after discovering how this shift in sense made an otherwise mundane challenge very difficult, they also discovered that their brains could quickly learn to adapt, just like when we practice new skills and learn from mistakes!

3. Sensorimotor Integration: Using soft mazes with hidden marbles, students explored how the brain combines sight and touch to guide movement – and how people who lose one sense can adapt in incredible ways. After attempting a maze with ability to see the pathway, their next challenge was to maneuver the ball through the maze without looking – relying only on touch!

4.  Brain Safety Challenge: Students designed “egg helmets” from recycled materials to protect an egg-in-a-jar during a drop test, learning how helmets help in keeping our brains safe. They even discovered how filling the jar with water could play a significant role in "cushioning" the egg from a drop – just like our spinal fluid! 

It was a fantastic capstone to our brain study—full of curiosity, creativity, and real-world science! Thank you so much to Marlene for organizing this learning opportunity for us! Enjoy some photos below of our Brain Science Workshop. :)