| Station Titles and Topics |
Station Descriptions |
| Build-a-Brain |
Compare models and real specimens from multiple animal species. Explore comparative neuroanatomy, then put structure and function relationships to work by building the brain of your own imaginary creature using Play-Doh. |
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| Touch a Real Human Brain |
Touch a real human brain! Further explore neuroanatomy, and consider human brain disorders. |
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| Why They Do What They Do at the Zoo |
Learn how to use ethograms to record animal behavior on your visit to the Zoo. Stop back by the main booth to report on animal behavior by adding to a main chart. |
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| Incredible Edible Neuron |
Explore neuroanatomy using yummy cookie creations. |
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| Neuron Man |
Explore neuron anatomy by having your picture taken in neuron man. Label the picture with neuron structural components with an archival pen. |
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| "Sparky" the Giant Neuron |
Walk through this one-of-a-kind 40-foot neuron. Explore ion channel gating, conductance, and selectivity in a super-sized neuron, complete with soma, intracellular organelles, axon tunnel, and activated nodes of Ranvier. |
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| Sleep |
Roll the dice to play a sleep card game. Find out why a cat sleeps in the sun all day, but an elephant stays awake 20 out of every 24 hours. Sleep newsletters will be available for three different age groups. |
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| Optical Illusions -- After Image Color Effects |
Stare at the American flag for 30 seconds. Now look at a white wall. Will you see the flag with different colors? What is this experience and why does it happen? |
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| Moving Pictures |
Moving pictures are effective optical illusions. Each frame in an old- fashion movie real is a single image, however, the frames change so fast our brains can't perceive them individually so we see "moving pictures." Check out some simple demos of this phenomenon. |
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| Mollusc Mania |
Compare cephalopods, bivalves, and gastropods -- their behaviors, physiology and habitat. |
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| Crabby Behavior at the Beach |
Explore invertebrate behavior in marine coastal environments. |
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| Marine Mammal Brain Game |
Answer probing questions about marine animals. Check out real marine mammal brains. Compare structure and function among different marine mammal anatomical organizations. |
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| Brain Waves |
Take live recordings of your brain waves while thinking about specific events/emotions, etc. |
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| Visual Distortion Goggles |
Why is drunk driving illegal? Check out how distorted your vision and coordination become when your are simulating intoxication with our state-of-the-art distortion goggles. |
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| Birdsong |
Answer the classic question: Why do birds sing? |
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| Classical Conditioning |
Repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus with a stimulus of significance can eventually cause the neutral stimulus to trigger a behavioral response. It's Pavlov's dog all over again. Experience classical conditioning. |
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| Noggin' |
Test your brain knowledge through clay modeling, word scrambles, puzzlers and more. |
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| Can You Smell What's in the Doctor's Bag? |
Test your sense of smell and your memories olfactory stimuli -- as a trigger to explore olfactory pathways from the nasal epithelium to the olfactory bulbs, forntal cortex and amygdala. |
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| Can You Feel What's in the Doctor's Bag? |
Use fun touch challenges to trigger an exploration of somatosensory pathways from skin to brain and back again. |
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| Can You See What's in the Doctor's Bag? |
This station enourages visitors to consider the visual pathways from retina to occipital lobe, and visual disorders that can result from disruption of the pathway. |
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| The Amazing Case of Phineas Gage |
Insight into the role of the prefrontal cortex in decision making, language and emotion was gained from the amazing case of Phineas Gage. Hear his story and explore the frontal lobe at this theatrical station. |
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| Wired to Win |
Wired to Win is an IMAX (and DVD) film that uses the Tour de France as a storyline to explore the brain and peripheral mechanisms of motivation, fear, sensory processing, decision-making and PAIN as cyclists and neuroscientists unite. |
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| Is Your Hippo on the Right Campus? |
Learning and memory require knowledge acquisition, consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Learn about these steps and their brain substrates through interactive memory games. |
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| Virtual Madness -- Schizophrenia Revealed |
Increase your awareness of schizophrenia, its symptons, neural bases, and current treatments. Simulate some auditory hallucinations with other zoo visitors and /or check out the virtual reality headset provided by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). |
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| Play the Animal Way |
Animal enrichment keeps zoo animals active -- in cognitive and physical domains. Play some of the "games" the animals play to forage for food or establish a nest. Discuss the brain benefits of enrichment, and what could happen in the absense of enrichment. |
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| That's Music to My Brain |
This booth explores brain areas activated by music, how we recognize and remember tunes, and a good old "name that tune" challenge with pop and obscure versions of our old favorites. |
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| Vomit! |
When your stomach says NO, your medulla says GO! The medulla mediates the human ability to vomit (not all animals can vomit). This interactive model explores how toxins evoke signaling from stomach to brainstem, and how vomiting results. Look out for the ICK factor! |
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| Brain Art |
Create an entry for the national Brain Art competition! Be creative with art supplies at your fingertips. |
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| Prize Wheel |
Spin the wheel for a chance to win Brains Rule! t-shirts and more. Kids play anytime they present a sticker card with at least five booth stickers. Adults play at the top of each hour and must also present a card displaying five booth stickers. |
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| Juggling Minstrel |
Will wow visitors with amazing feats of balance and coordination. |
