Open Day
“What’s in your head?”
The complexity of the human brain has always aroused curiosity, doubts and, inevitably, increased difficulty in understanding it as a whole. Aware of the obstacles inherent to the understanding of the brain, the Portuguese Society of Neurosciences presented the fifth edition of the Brain Week, an initiative that intends to bring the scientific community closer to the population, and which includes several different activities.
In the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), the Brain Week was celebrated through an “Open Day”, in which the institute opened its doors to students from several Lisbon secondary schools, and through the participation by IMM/FMUL research staff in several different initiatives in school and in the Knowledge Pavilion in the Lisbon Nations’ Park.
The slogan for the “Open Day”, launched by Luísa Lopes and Paula Pousinha, the research fellows responsible for the project, was “What’s in your head?”
Sensations, memories, images and the relationship that they have with thoughts and impressions were concepts explained through little games that each student could carry out in the several different stations set up by the IMM neuroscientists.
The about one hundred and twenty students present learned that the sensations of cold and heat are relative, that the atmosphere around us influences our capacity to memorise and also that there are senses that create stronger memories than others.
At another moment the participants had the possibility to talk with researchers and observe the way that one studies the development of the nervous system, with the aid of a fluorescent microscope and brain tissue preparations.
The “Open Day” ended with the projecting of an animated film about the “Action Potential” of nerve cells, a detailed reproduction of the nervous system and of some of the chemical processes that take place among cells.
Just as in previous editions, the Brain Week was subordinated to a national theme. The theme chosen for 2009 was “The Brain and Art”. The last challenge facing the young participants in the “Open Day” at the IMM was to fill up a white mural with each person’s impressions about the subject. They were provided with paint and could do whatever “came into their heads”.
The colours, forms, words and symbols left by the participants created the image of that which was the main idea of the project on the blank paper: it is the set of several different simple elements that makes the brain so complex and so complete.
Organisation Institute of Molecular Medicine
(Units of Neurosciences, Communication and Training, Biology of Development and Bio-imaging)
The Neuroscience Unit researchers are affiliated to the FMUL Institute of Pharmacology and Neurosciences, where some of them teach.
Sponsoring
Zeiss (Laura Machado)
Open Day - “What’s in your head?”
Luisa Lopes (lvlopes@fm.ul.pt)
Paula Pousinha (ppousinha@fm.ul.pt)
Cheila Almeida (cheilaalmeida@fm.ul.pt)
Marta Agostinho (marta-elisa@fm.ul.pt)
“What’s in your head?”
The complexity of the human brain has always aroused curiosity, doubts and, inevitably, increased difficulty in understanding it as a whole. Aware of the obstacles inherent to the understanding of the brain, the Portuguese Society of Neurosciences presented the fifth edition of the Brain Week, an initiative that intends to bring the scientific community closer to the population, and which includes several different activities.
In the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), the Brain Week was celebrated through an “Open Day”, in which the institute opened its doors to students from several Lisbon secondary schools, and through the participation by IMM/FMUL research staff in several different initiatives in school and in the Knowledge Pavilion in the Lisbon Nations’ Park.
The slogan for the “Open Day”, launched by Luísa Lopes and Paula Pousinha, the research fellows responsible for the project, was “What’s in your head?”
Sensations, memories, images and the relationship that they have with thoughts and impressions were concepts explained through little games that each student could carry out in the several different stations set up by the IMM neuroscientists.
The about one hundred and twenty students present learned that the sensations of cold and heat are relative, that the atmosphere around us influences our capacity to memorise and also that there are senses that create stronger memories than others.
At another moment the participants had the possibility to talk with researchers and observe the way that one studies the development of the nervous system, with the aid of a fluorescent microscope and brain tissue preparations.
The “Open Day” ended with the projecting of an animated film about the “Action Potential” of nerve cells, a detailed reproduction of the nervous system and of some of the chemical processes that take place among cells.
Just as in previous editions, the Brain Week was subordinated to a national theme. The theme chosen for 2009 was “The Brain and Art”. The last challenge facing the young participants in the “Open Day” at the IMM was to fill up a white mural with each person’s impressions about the subject. They were provided with paint and could do whatever “came into their heads”.
The colours, forms, words and symbols left by the participants created the image of that which was the main idea of the project on the blank paper: it is the set of several different simple elements that makes the brain so complex and so complete.
Organisation Institute of Molecular Medicine
(Units of Neurosciences, Communication and Training, Biology of Development and Bio-imaging)
The Neuroscience Unit researchers are affiliated to the FMUL Institute of Pharmacology and Neurosciences, where some of them teach.
Sponsoring
Zeiss (Laura Machado)
Open Day - “What’s in your head?”
Luisa Lopes (lvlopes@fm.ul.pt)
Paula Pousinha (ppousinha@fm.ul.pt)
Cheila Almeida (cheilaalmeida@fm.ul.pt)
Marta Agostinho (marta-elisa@fm.ul.pt)
