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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
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Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in February including:
A. February Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news3002.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
C. Visit or follow my Instagram site with neuroscience facts and trivia:
https://www.instagram.com/ericchudler/
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for February is "Pathways" at:
https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pathways
Pathways was created by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for middle and high school students and teachers interested in the biomedical sciences. The series was created several years ago, but I think the materials are still relevant and useful. The topics covered in Pathways include A) The Brain and Anesthesia; B) Imaging; C) Superbugs; D) Circadian Rhythms; E) Regeneration and F) Basic Science Careers. Each topic is discussed with a magazine for students (4 pages), lesson plan for teachers, interactives, vocabulary list, videos, and quizzes. There is also an "Educators Corner," but the links to this feature did not work for me. The material in The Brain and Anesthesia and Circadian Rhythms units are most related to neuroscience, but other units also have connections to the brain.
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The National Eye Institute is hosting a video contest for U.S. high school students (grades 9 to 12) to explore science and science careers. Videos (30 seconds to 3 minutes in length) must be about A) Science in your world; B) Science in action or C) Science in your future. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners. The contest closes on April 19, 2026 or after the first 300 entries are received. For more details and information about how to entry, see: https://www.nei.nih.gov/about/education-and-outreach/eye-future-teen-video-contest
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It's Brain Awareness Week (BAW) this month! The official dates are March 16-22, 2026, but there are special activities going on all month at schools, libraries, and universities and online too. I encourage everyone to participate.
On Saturday, March 21 2026, I will be at the Pacific Science Center (Seattle, WA) helping them with their BAW event called BrainFest 2026. During the event, I'll be a gameshow host for a brain trivia game. Here is a full schedule for BrainFest 2026:
https://alleninstitute.org/events/brainfest-2026/
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A. "Does the Naked Mole Rat Hold the Secret to a Long Life" (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, March, 2026).
B. "Looking Through the Eye and into Alzheimer's Disease" (AMERICAN SCIENTIST, March-April, 2026).
C. "Consciousness: The Road to Reductionism" (AMERICAN SCIENTIST, March-April, 2026).
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A. Cows (well, at least one pet cow named Veronika) can use a tool to self-scratch (Source: Osuna-Mascaro, A.J. et al., Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow, Current Biology, 36:R44 - R45, 2026).
B. Each human eye is moved by six muscles: four rectus muscles (superior, inferior, medial, lateral) and the two oblique muscles (superior, inferior).
C. The term "brainwashing" emerged during the Korean War. The word comes from the Chinese phrase "xi nao" that means "to wash the brain" (Source: Steinmetz, S., There's a word for it: the explosion of the American language since 1900. 1st ed., 2010, New York: Harmony Books).
D. The largest biomedical library in the world, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, was founded in 1836 (Source: DeBakey, M.E., The National Library of Medicine. Evolution of a premier information center, JAMA, 266:1252-1258, 1991).
E. Head CAT scans are performed about 16 million times in emergency departments in the United States (Source: Dylla, L., et al., Trends in head CT use in US emergency department patients from 2007 to 2022: A nationwide analysis, Neurology, 105: e214347, 2025).
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Chudler at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.
Eric
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.