Teaching Neuroscience

When I moved to Korea, I was so excited to teach English and leave all the neuroscience behind. But when people find out I have a Masters in neuro, sometimes they ask if I'm bored teaching English. The fact is, I'm not! I love my job. It's so different from the experience I had in Montreal. But it doesn't mean I don't miss neuroscience. There is a reason I spent 7 years in university studying it.

Braaaaains!

A couple weeks ago a colleague of mine asked if I had heard of this international competition called the Brain Bee. Through my involvement with Brain Awareness Montreal, I know about this competition because BAM hosts the local Montreal Brain Bee every year. So I said yes, and he asked if I would give a series of after-school lectures to help 10 students at my school prepare for the Korean National competition. How could I say no? I love brains!!!

Me .. playing with a cow brain!

So today I gave my first of nine lectures ... and it went well! I'm supposed to cover two chapters every lecture, but tonight I just wanted to give an introduction. Tell them about the parts of the nervous system and major divisions of the brain. Talk about the neuron and how there are billions of them connected in our brains. I wanted to get them interested in the brain. While most of the material was over their head, they have a few months to learn it. I know I cannot teach them everything in nine classes. My goal is to give them a basic knowledge of neuroscience, so that when they do further reading in preparation for the competition, they will understand.

I think I was meant to be a teacher. I just love this feeling of inspiring young minds!

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