CAN-BIND at Brain Bonanza

Event Summary: CAN-BIND at Brain Bonanza

The Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) has partnered with the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa to host Brain: The Inside Story, a public exhibition, from May to September 2018. Together, they also organized Brain Bonanza, a special weekend of interactive activities about brain research, brain health, and neurotechnology for all ages. Brain Bonanza was held on June 9 and 10, 2018. 

CAN-BIND brought its life-sized board game about clinical trials to Ottawa to teach the public about the main steps of clinical studies, and why research participants are vital to advancing our understanding of depression and treatment response. Did you know that you can participate in studies as a ‘patient’ or a ‘control’? For depression studies, this means that both people with and without depression can get involved in research. To learn more about the research process, click here and download the Clinical Trials 101 leaflet.

 

Leftmost to second from the right: Museum visitors play the Clinical Trials 101 board game. Rightmost: Janice Pong, CAN-BIND Communications Manager (left) and Anum Shivji Arwani, CAN-BIND Outreach Coordinator (right) are pictured with the game board pieces.

 

CAN-BIND trainee, Stephen Daniels, led an interactive activity about food and mood at Brain Bonanza. Some foods have healthy fats, while others have unhealthy fats. Download the activity handout to test your knowledge about how foods can affect how you feel (linked below). Stephen received a NSERC Student Ambassador grant, which funded the opportunity for him to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at Brain Bonanza.  Stephen is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Francesco Leri at the University of Guelph.

 

Left: Stephen Daniels at his Food and Mood booth at the Brain Bonanza event. Right: Stephen teaches a museum visitor about healthy foods for your brain.

 

View the food and mood leaflet by clicking the thumbnail below. 

 

Andrew Kcomt from the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario (MDAO) also attended the weekend of festivities. He educated visitors about emotional awareness and mental health. MDAO provides community-based programs, including peer support groups, professional counseling, and registered wellness programs.

 

Left: Andrew Kcomt, Knowledge Translation & Research Manager with the MDAO (center) is joined by Janice Pong, CAN-BIND Communications Manager (left) and Anum Shivji Arwani, CAN-BIND Outreach Coordinator (right) at his activity booth. Right: A ‘feelings wheel’ activity was used to teach young museum visitors about emotional awareness.

 

See highlights from the entire event, compiled by the Ontario Brain Institute, here. If you are in Ottawa or planning to travel there this summer, be sure to check out the ongoing public exhibition, Brain: The Inside Story and the Talk Brain series. The Ontario Brain Institute has also created a whole suite of fun, hands-on activities about brain wellness in the lower level of the museum.

 

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Photos by Andrew Kcomt
Written by Janice Pong