Dear Neuroscientist colleagues,

The Manitoba Neuroscience Network Outreach Committee will be organizing the annual 2024 BrainBee competition together with activities for the 2024 Brain Awareness Week.

We are looking for labs to help out with the following events. **** NOTE: Graduate students and Postdocs who volunteer for any of the below calls will receive recognition on their co-curricular experiences record (CCR)***:

Brain Bee competition: Saturday, March 9, 2024, 9-3pm

We need junior graduate students to help with the Brain Bee competition who will serve as scorekeepers and photographers for the competition, and escort the participants around the campus. Graduate students can also organize and/or participate in the lab demonstrations if their PI decides to open the lab up for lab tours and demonstrations for the competition's students.

We invite lab PIs and faculty members to organize lab tours and demonstrations for the students and we also need judges. Judges are responsible for leading the preliminary round of the competition, and this will involve a two-hour time commitment in the morning. Lab tours and demonstrations are held in the afternoon and are typically 30- 45 minutes in length (for each group). Past Brain Bees have featured microscopy and neurophysiology demonstrations, and we welcome any new ideas that you may have.

KABAM ! during the first 2 weeks of March, daytime (about 2-3 hrs)

MNN is happy to announce the first ever "Kids Art for Brain Awareness Manitoba! (KABAM!)". We are inviting Manitoba students in grades 4-6 to create and share their best brain-themed artistic creations. We need enthusiastic junior graduate students (with encouragement from their supportive PIs) to be neuroscience ambassadors at 3-5 local schools. This job will involve a brief visit to a local elementary school to talk to students in grade 4-6 classes for 5-10 minutes about neuroscience and invite the class to participate in KABAM.

Public Outreach Evenings - during the first 2 weeks of March, 6-7:30pm

We invite postdocs and senior graduate students (with their PI's approval) to hone their scientific communication and public speaking skills by delivering a 15-20 minute talk about their neuroscience research to a public audience. The goal for these public lectures is for students and trainees to use their growing expertise to engage with the public about neuroscience and how it relates to some common health topics. Potential neuroscience research themes for this year's talks include, but are not limited to:

Head Games: The Complex World of Concussions and Brain Injuries MS in Focus: A Manitoba Perspective on Multiple Sclerosis

Aging Brains: The Battle Against Neurodegenerative Diseases" Neurodivergent Narratives: Celebrating Brain Diversity

If your lab has other ideas for a theme, let us know and we will work with you. We want to recruit three presenters per topic(each presentation lasting about 15 min), followed by

a round table discussion and Q&A for another 30-45 min, for 1.5 hour total. MNN has been working on securing venues for these: public libraries and a brewery. Exact dates and venues to be finalized with presenters' input.

Anyone who wishes to volunteer can contact me directly by e-mail and I will be happy to answer any questions Katinka.Stecina@umanitoba.ca mailto:Katinka.Stecina@umanitoba.ca .

Thank you for your ongoing support of the MNN Outreach program!

~on behalf of the MNN Outreach Committee~

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