Celebrating Ten Years of Outreach

Brain Awareness Week Kicks Off in Duluth March 12

More than 5800 fifth and sixth grade students will have an opportunity to see a real human brain up close and learn about how it helps people think, feel, taste and touch as University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth students and faculty visit classrooms in Duluth and communities scattered throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin during February and March.

The Medical School Duluth Campus has participated in the international initiative called “Brain Awareness Week” for ten years. By the end of the 2007, over 25,000 students in more than 100 schools in 60+ towns will have participated in a Duluth Brain Awareness presentation.  On March 19^th, the Medical School Duluth will host a ten-year celebration in honor of the approximately 250 volunteers who’ve made those totals happen. 

“The University of Minnesota and our Medical School have a strong commitment to community outreach.  Brain Awareness Week is an excellent example of this commitment in action.  We are delighted to be able to share our knowledge with schools in our region,” commented Gary Davis, Ph.D., interim senior associate dean of the Medical School, Duluth Campus.

Launched in 1996, Brain Awareness Week has united the Society for Neuroscience with the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and a coalition of over 1,600 science, advocacy, and health organizations that share an interest in elevating public awareness of brain and nervous system research. 

Janet Fitzakerley, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Physiology and Pharmacology department at the Medical School, is a member of the Public Education and Communication Committee of the Society for Neuroscience, which oversees Brain Awareness Week internationally.   “Educating kids about the brain is critical because they need to understand how important it is to protect their brain cells” commented Fitzakerley. But there’s another reason that Brain Awareness is important, she added. “Neuroscientists need to talk to the public about the critical nature of brain research.  One in three Americans will experience a neurological disorder at some point in their lives, and someone suffers a stroke about every 45 seconds, for example.  Research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, funded by Congress and performed here in Duluth, will help solve some of the mysteries of brain function and help us find better ways to treat nervous system diseases.” 

Fitzakerley organizes the Duluth educational activities and schedules the students and professors in local schools that have requested presentations.   She is among the scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth who are leaders in brain research.  For example, read our story about  Dr. Les Drewes, who is leading a new international organization about the blood-brain barrier. Drewes has participated every year in Brain Awareness presentations.

Community service activities are a vital part of medical students’ education, especially when they participating in the Family Medicine Preceptorship Program. Participants in that program are required to work with a practicing family physician in a smaller Minnesota or Wisconsin community several times during their first two years of medical school. 

Jared Lund, a second-year medical student, gave his Brain Awareness presentation to students in Moose Lake as part of his preceptorship program.  Lund said he was amazed by the sixth graders’ immediate, active interest in his program.  “Only one kid had seen a brain before and it was from a cow. Hands were shooting up all around the room flagging my attention in every direction. Questions ranged from what would happen if various chunks of your brain were missing, to what keeps your brain from falling out of your mouth, to some very in depth ones that asked about the senses,” he said.

• Duluth Campus Brain Awareness Week Info