Neuroscience Activity Ideas

[topaz4]

I'm a junior in high school planning to major in neuroscience and am trying to get into the best college possible. I know I would increase my chances of getting in if I demonstrated a passion for neuroscience, so I'm trying find activities that would do this. The only thing I can come up with is to start a Cognitive Science Club at my high school. Any other ideas?

[iNow]

A club is a good idea. Getting together with other people of similar interests can help you grow, and give you new ideas you might not otherwise encounter.

 

Just remember that sometimes clubs can be hard to "manage," and that they often soon become a place for people to just hang out and chat more than focus on the subject matter in which you're interested (that doesn't mean they're bad. no, just take some more "social" management )

 

 

 

Maybe you could try a few experiments. Those look REALLY good to any admissions program. Keep them super simple, but form a testable hypothesis and go run a test to see if it was correct. If you were right, then try expanding the test to encompass more. If you were wrong, then spend time figuring out where and why (most times, in science, it's better to be wrong because you tend to learn more).

 

 

In the meantime, here are a few cool sites that might help you out:

 

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/experi.html

 

(the main site which presented those experiments is also really good) --> http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html

 

http://fc.units.it/ppb/NeuroBiol/Neuroscienze%20per%20tutti/experi.html

 

http://www.dls.ym.edu.tw/chudler/introb.html

 

http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/discover/neuroscience-for-kids

 

 

 

 

Another idea might be (if your parents will let you) to get a subscription to a neuroscience journal/magazine. Those might be pretty hard to read at first (the people who write the articles are really good at what they do, and they have specialized in the topic for years, so sometimes it takes a lot of work to figure out what they are saying). However, you would DEFINITELY learn a lot by reading them regularly, and you would know what type of research is going on, and be really current with your knowledge.

 

You might look through some of these search results at the link below, and talk to your parents about subscribing (try to avoid subscribing to too many, at least at first. find one or two that stand out to you, and make sure that journal reading is something that you enjoy doing).

 

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS275&q=neuroscience+journals

 

 

Also, if you have a local libarary (even a university library if possible) you can often read journals for free there. If you formed your club, that could even be something you do together.

 

 

 

It's still early where I live, and I haven't had any coffee yet, so I'm struggling to come up with ideas for you. Hopefully other members here will contribute to your thread with their ideas as well.

 

Good luck, and have fun!

[topaz4]

Those were some great links! Thanks for your reply. I've already subscribed to ScientificAmerican Mind.

[Ladeira]

I have plans like yours.

I also love Neuroscience, but I'm still confused between it and Microbiology.

Good Luck.