The young, well-preserved and creative brains at B’more BrainFest
Last Saturday, I volunteered at the Baltimore BrainFest organized by Project Bridge, a science outreach program. I returned home feeling elated, just like I’d felt last year after having volunteered at the very first BrainFest. This year, I chose to spend the morning at a booth with brains from various animals on display. Kids of all age groups and the enthusiastic parents chaperoning them around stopped by to take a look.
We had REAL brains from a cow, a sheep, a pig, a rat, a mouse and a bat! The latter three were donated by various labs at Hopkins that use these species as animal models for their research. As for the sources of the first three animal brains, we’ll get to that in a bit. The idea was to give the visitors an opportunity to see and compare these brains and discuss concepts of comparative neuroanatomy — Why is the olfactory bulb bigger (relative to the brain size) in mice and rats than in humans or what does that tell us about a rodent’s sense of smell? Is that why cats are good with balancing themselves — the huge cerebellum? Does brain size correlate with intelligence? To keep things interesting, we laid out six labels with the animal names mentioned on each and got the kids to match these with the brains.
A little secret: I couldn’t tell apart the sheep and pig brains so I accepted either label as correct for those two brains. I even shared this secret with kids who were really engaged and explained that the two looked similar because both mammals were similar sized. In fact, it was a good way of highlighting the fact that brains from various similar sized mammals don’t necessarily look very distinct.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a parent who was shocked to see the cow brain. He stared at it for a good 30 seconds in disbelief. Then he asked, “That’s what a cow’s brain looks like, so similar to a human’s..yet all it can say is moo?” That was the most hilarious reaction I’d seen all morning, I laughed out loud and proceeded to explain, “Cows display complex behaviors, they learn and remember, react emotionally, perform elaborate movements and socially interact..”. “And yet, we eat them?!”, he interrupted in a concerned voice. “We shouldn’t be doing that!”, he continued. I just smiled and let the conversation end there. Who was I to preach?
An interaction with another parent got me all emotional. A mother stopped by with her son who seemed enthusiastic about the guessing game. While he got busy with the brains, she began to vehemently advocate for research and said that we, as a society, needed more festivals like this one. She shared that she’d lost a child to disease and had donated his brain to science!
All the kids that came by the booth had really interesting questions, some scientific (How does the brain develop with age? — yes, she did use the word develop, How big is Moby Dick’s brain compared to a human’s?, If your brain splits into half, will you die?) some not so scientific (Are these real brains?!, Where did you get these from?). I guess it’s time for me to answer that question. The cow, sheep and pig brains were purchased online! I did share this information with a very curious older kid. She exclaimed, “Why? Why can we buy brains online? What’s wrong with the world? Ewww! I don’t think I want to know more. That’s disgusting!” Yet, she lingered on, eavesdropping on the conversation I had with the next kid about brains and how cool they are!
I spent the afternoon indulged in SciArt. We helped the kids create artwork that was inspired by Jackson Pollock’s style— using a pie pan, some marbles and paint. As the crowds dwindled, I picked up a brain cutout and got my hands dirty. Who wouldn’t love an experiment that can only end well? A perfect end to a perfect day!
