Students explore brain health in the community

01 May 2012

“What is a ‘stroke’? “How do you measure brain function?”

These are just two of the questions that 28 Māori and Pacific students in Year 10 at four Auckland secondary schools (Onehunga High School, James Cook High School, Aorere College and St Cuthbert’s College) have been investigating over the past two months. The students are participating in a pilot programme in which two of The University of Auckland’s leading research groups, the Liggins Institute and the Centre for Brain Research (CBR), have joined forces to boost the community’s understanding of science.

On Thursday 03 May the students will present the results of their research to an audience of scientists, teachers, families and fellow students in a public seminar at the Liggins Institute in Grafton.

Director of the Liggins Institute’s LENScience programme, Jacquie Bay says the Students as Researchers programme is designed to engage school students in the culture and process of science while giving them a taste of being part of an academic community.

“This year we have selected students who have the ability and interest to progress in science but who come from communities which tend to be poorly represented in the science and health professions - but over-represented amongst those with poor health outcomes.”

In a series of workshops with LENScience educators and scientists from CBR, the students learned about the structure and function of the brain, what a stroke is and how it affects the brain. They learned how common strokes are in the community and what puts people at risk of having a stroke.

The students worked with scientists to devise and test a series of simple and fun experiments they could use to measure aspects of brain function such as coordination, concentration and memory. They invited members of the public to take part in the assessments when they acted as Junior Ambassadors working alongside CBR researchers at the Neurological Foundation-CBR sponsored Brain Day held at The University of Auckland in March.

Since then the students have analysed their findings and made posters which they will present at this week’s Brainwaves Seminar.
“We hope the experience will show students and their families that they have a place studying science at tertiary level and encourage them to look at ways they can apply their learning in their communities,” says Jacquie Bay.

During the programme, students found inspirational role models in CBR scientist mentors such as former Aorere College student Dr Donna Rose Addis - 2010 winner of the prestigious Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize. Following BA and MA degrees in Psychology from The University of Auckland, Donna Rose took a PhD as a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Toronto, and then held a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University. In 2008 she returned to The University of Auckland, where she is now a senior lecturer and Director of the Memory Lab in the Department of Psychology.


Further information:
Kerry Dillon, LENScience Projects Manager
k.dillon@auckland.ac.nz; phone 64 9 923 1389

Event details: Students as Researchers: Brainwaves Seminar
Presentations by Year 10 students from Onehunga High School,
James Cook High School, Aorere College and St Cuthbert’s College

Date: 03 May
Time: 5.30 – 7pm
Venue: Liggins Institute Seminar Room
2-6 Park Avenue, Grafton
(parking available)
RSVP: LENScience - Rosabel Tan
rosabel.tan@auckland.ac.nz; phone 923 1382

Links
LENScience 
Centre for Brain Research