Local scientists grill Boston high-school students about neuroscience at the Boston Regional Brain Bee.
Constanza Villalba
In a small auditorium at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory on Saturday, 25 Boston-area high-school students calmly grappled with tough questions about neuroanatomy and psychopharmacology in front of an audience of about 50. They were competing in the neuroscience version of a spelling bee.
Contestants in the Boston Regional Brain Bee started their day with a 30-minute, 75-question written exam and ended it with a volley of oral questions that would have stumped even professional neuroscientists. But according to the first- and second-place winners, the most important thing the bee offered was not the chance to show off what they knew about the brain; it was the opportunity to interact with real-life neuroscientists.
“I’ve not met very many neuroscientists in my life,” said second-place winner Eugene Serebryany, an 18-year-old senior at Newton South High school. “All the scientists that were here–I actually got to talk to them. They were very interesting people.”
The bee was one of several events going on around the country to promote Brain Awareness Week, an educational campaign run by the Society for Neuroscience and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. This and other regional bees welcome all interested high school students. To prepare, contestants study a free, 64-page primer on the brain and nervous system published by the Society for Neuroscience.
On Saturday, 11 participants with the highest scores on the written test went on to the oral portion of the competition. With each round, the questions grew more difficult and students were eliminated when they got three questions wrong. Four local neuroscientists served as judges.
The question that eliminated Serebryany: “Name the protein responsible for the neurofibrillary tangles that form inside the cells of people with Alzheimer’s disease.” He answered, “beta amyloid,” which is a protein involved in another aspect of Alzheimer’s. The correct answer was tau. (see correction note below)
This year’s winner was 17-year-old Natalya Slepneva, another student from Newton South High School, one of the few local high schools to offer a course in neurobiology. Slepneva correctly answered about a dozen questions and got two wrong.
Slepneva won $350 and qualified to compete in the international brain bee at the University of Maryland next month. If she wins there, she’ll get $3,000, a fellowship to work in a neuroscience lab this summer, and an all-expenses paid trip to this year’s annual Society for Neuroscience meeting.
The competition was just one part of the bee. During the lunch break, students heard from a panel of clinicians, industry and academic scientists, a research coordinator, and a grant writer. The speakers explained what had sparked their interest in science and then fielded questions about what it takes to become a scientist. One of the panelists, Margaret Livingstone, a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School, gave a talk about her research.
Slepneva and Serebryany, despite their knack for neuroscience, said they weren’t sure that they wanted to go into science. Slepneva said she is torn between science and her other passions, literature and languages.
Steven Greenberg, a stroke specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who attended the event, said, “Most kids don’t know what a scientist really does.” The bee gave kids a “window on what the scientific world looks like,” he added.
The competition was organized by Jason Chan and Michelle Tangredi, neuroscience graduate students at Tufts University. The event was sponsored by the Boston Area Neuroscience Group, the local chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.
Correction: The question that eliminated Eugene Serebryany was “Aspirin prevents pain by preventing the production of what chemicals?” He answered “neurotransmitters.” The correct answer was “prostaglandins.” We apologize for the error.