Annual Report of Activities CNC 2008 - Center for Neuroscience and ...

Outreach ProgrammeOutreach Programme aims society scientific education. To attain this goal specific scientific programes areimplemented in colaboration with schools and several social and cultural associations.CNC as promoter of Science DivulgationUnder the scope of Laboratório Associado, CNC has launched several activities aimed to promote ScienceDivulgation near the non‐scientific community:1. “Ciência Viva” programme.Six portuguese students and four spanish students from secondary schools participated in this programmeduring Summer Holidays which was run for 10 days. Adding to visits to facilities and laboratories,students had the opportunity to run themselves several molecular/cell biology techniques as part of shortprojects (e.g. “Neurotoxic effects of drugs of abuse”).2. Brain Awareness Week (BAW)In order to promote contact between students and neuroscientists at school, several activities entitled“Journey through the center of the Brain” and “Crash of the Brain” were planned for 5‐17 years oldstudents, including modelling by using playdough, puzzles, painting, brief PowerPoint presentations (e.g.brain anatomy 3‐D film, five senses, optical illusions and neuronal damage by alcohol and drugs of abuse).More than 500 students participated in these activities.Students from secondary schools visited several laboratory facilities and were allowed to performtechniques currently used in a neuroscience laboratory (“Open Laboratories”).Public Sessions at book stores, dealing with themes such as “Neuroscience Research in Portugal” wereorganized.In collaboration with the new Museum of Science of the University of Coimbra, CNC organizedMultidisciplinary Conferences (“Brain and Society”), with speakers from different areas, open for generalpublic but the target audience was students (6‐18 years old), In the entrance hall of the Museum of Sciencean interactive exposition called “Brain: from anatomy to behavior” took place that was visited by around 900persons.1233. European Science and Technology weekGeneral Public Sessions and “Open Laboratories” activities were developed similarly to what wasdescribed above for BAW.The activities in which CNC has been enrolled in 2008 related with Science Divulgation were partiallyfunded by Ciência Viva (the national council for the scientific and technological culture), the Federation ofEuropean Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the Portuguese Society for Neurosciences (SPN) and also byseveral private entities, such as Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. These activities were promoted inseveral web pages including “Ciencia Viva” (www.cienciaviva.pt/home/).In addition to the above mentioned activities, CNC enthusiastically participated in the exposition ForumCiência at the “Pavilhão do Conhecimento”, Lisbon, where research and outreach activities were exhibited.In the scope of the collaboration between CNC and Instituto de Educação e Cidadania (IEC), Mamarrosa,several activities took place during BAW (primary and secondary schools near IEC) and CNC’sresearchers participated in public sessions at IEC, actively promoting the interaction betweenneuroscientists and society, at a regional level.In 2008, CNC established collaboration with Exploratorium (Center Ciência Viva in Coimbra), that will belaunched in 2009/2010 to promote organized visits of students from secondary schools to laboratories(“Open Laboratories”) as part of their scholar programme.