Students from 10 high schools, as well as several who are home-schooled, are already registered to compete in the third annual Denison University Brain Bee, set for 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31, in the Burton D. Morgan Center’s Lecture Hall (150 Ridge Road). Only a few of the 25 available spots are open at this time and participants can register by contacting Associate Professor Nestor Matthews, the contest coordinator, at matthewsn@denison.edu. All competitors must be pre-registered.

The Central Ohio Brain Bee is the local competition for the International Brain Bee (IBB), based at the University of Maryland. The IBB’s mission is “… to motivate our youth to learn about the brain, capture their imagination and inspire them to pursue careers in biomedical brain research.” Matthews notes, “More than any other organ, the brain plays a central role in making humans human. Yet neuroscience is poorly represented in K-12 education. Denison University has a responsibility to promote the public understanding of neuroscience and to show that neuroscience is fun.”

The Denison contest winner will receive a trophy, a cash prize and a trip to the national contest, set for March 20 and 21. All participants in the Denison competition earn T-shirts for all attending family members and a one-year family membership to The Works museum in Newark. At the national contest, the winner receives a $1,500 prize, a paid internship and the trip to the international contest.

Competitors at the local/regional level are judged on their mastery of the information found in the study document “Brain Facts,” which is available on the Internet. Denison students in the Nu Rho Psi neuroscience honor society also have produced an IPod-friendly audio version of “Brain Facts,” which competitors may use. “Neuroscience: The Science of the Brain,” produced by the British Neurological Association, is the work used in the national Brain Bee.

The central Ohio contest was organized in 2006 by Julianne McCall, a Denison student who had competed in a Brain Bee and finished as the third place winner in the international contest. After graduation, McCall won a Fulbright scholarship and went to Sweden to study neuroscience at Lund University. Judging the contest are faculty members from the biology department and psychology/neuroscience program at Denison: Nestor Matthews, Susan Kennedy, Eric Liebl, Kristina Mead, Heather Rhodes and Caroline Wilson.

Sponsors of the Denison Brain Bee are president Dale Knobel, the Office of the Provost, the Society for Neuroscience, and Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. The Denison Brain Bee competition raises funds for Alzheimer’s research.

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Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville — Central Ohio Brain Bee Competition at 2 p.m. on Sat, Jan. 31, in the Burton D. Morgan Lecture Hall (150 Ridge Road). Competitors must register with Nestor Matthews at matthewsn@denison.edu. Free and open to the public.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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