? ? The current proposal is an extension of previous work involving the development of a longitudinal activity based neuroscience education program for elementary school students, that spans the 3rd through 5th grades. We have named the program """"""""Brain Explorers"""""""" to convey the inquiry-based, hands-on, minds-on nature of activities developed. The objective of the program is to create engaging science education activities that will cultivate an understanding of the wonders of the human nervous system. Through this educational enrichment, we hypothesize that students will gain enhanced self-awareness, that will promote self-respect and behaviors that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. In addition age-appropriate activities are proposed to help these elementary age children understand some of the effects of drug abuse on the nervous system and body. In the proposed work, the specific aims are designed to create resources and materials that will allow national dissemination of the program. This work will include creation of teacher and student guides in print and multimedia formats to facilitate implementation of the activities. Multimedia specialist at Research Triangle Institute will work with the Brain Explorers staff to create engaging multimedia resources to help meet our learning objectives. To help teachers address learning goals in basic reading, writing, and math skills for which they are most accountable, we will develop and systematize extensions of Brain Explorers activities to promote basic academic skill development. Systematically integrating and linking Brain Explorer activities with approaches to enhance basic learning objectives is a strategy that could promote wide spread adoption of the program. The need for improved teacher training in science education is widely recognized. Accordingly, an important component of the present application will be to develop teacher training workshops and resources, to provide broad and basic science background information relevant to the Brain Explorers activities, and to provide training that will allow teachers to effectively conduct the activities of the program. It is expected that """"""""multimedia workshops"""""""" will be an effective mechanism to reach a broad audience of teachers, if direct participation in workshops is impractical. We will therefore develop video and CD support resources to aid in teacher training. The proposed work will pilot the program in schools with diverse demographics, to guide the development of resources and materials that will allow dissemination of the Brain Explorers program in a wide range of public school settings. ? ?
