EyeWire Edu
Hello Teachers!
We’ve heard that you’re using EyeWire in your classrooms to teach students about neuroscience and citizen science, and we want to help. EyeWire is featuring helpful video and interactive neuroscience content in order to help you develop a curriculum for your students, but we can’t do it without you. If you have used EyeWire in your classroom, or you’re looking to do so, please fill out this form and tell us about your experience. If you have developed neuroscience lesson plans, or particularly appreciated some pre-developed content on the web, please link us in our Education Forum and tell us a bit about your own classroom.
Why should I use EyeWire with my students? We hope that students will feel empowered and excited by their contribution to neuroscience research. Showing students that they can help scientists make new discoveries may give them the confidence to study science in college and build a career in the field.
How do I integrate EyeWire into the lesson I make using the material provided? The material provided here is meant to get students interested in contributing to neuroscience research. In the past, teachers have used EyeWire to demonstrate neuron structure in class, and they have assigned the game as a homework assignment. Computer gaming for homework?! Now that’s a student’s dream turned reality.
(For a specific lesson plan that includes EyeWire, see our Connectomics Lesson Plan)
Below you’ll find streamlined content that we’ve found and liked. Most content is directed at high school students, so material that is also approachable for middle schoolers is tagged. We will be updating this page and tagging the newest features with the word “NEW”.
Video
(note: if your school does not allow youtube access consider youtube for schools)
The Human Connectome, by SciShow EyeWire is one of the labs mapping the human connectome, or neural wiring map, but we are zooming in a bit more, looking at neuron-neuron connections. Here are five themed playlists using video from some of our favorite educational youtube channels. These videos are all super stimulating and dense. In order to break them down, students can pick 1+ ideas from a playlist and write about them, research them, or discuss them with classmates. Another way to break the playlists up would be pausing the videos for quick discussions.
Memory Psychology themed
Development and Plasticity Philosophy themed
More from BrainCraft Vanessa hill’s content is a bit slower and more focused, making it approachable. Middle school+, psychology.
Illusion and Sensation Psychology themed
Your Brain on… From AsapScience 11 quick videos about your brain under the influence of drugs, love, stress, ect. Health themed.
More Neuroscience longer (14 videos) with more breadth.
NobelPrize.org has a SUPER QUIRKY interactive story that illustrates split-brain and the scientific process of writing a paper.
Websites
Brain Facts has a ton of information, and has this resource page for educators. It features some of the material found here, and more. Fantastic search bar.
Neuroscience For Kids is a website with approachable activities for elementary and middle school. You’ll find tons of organized information in the explore tab too. Their video content is less engaging than their activity content.
PBS Learning Media: Neuroscience Search and Brain Search
Dwayne Godwin Neuroscience Comics are clear, concise, and fun tidbits
Interactive content from U of Utah Heath Sciences is SO fun! Scroll down for the neuroscience section. Look for these games (& more!):
Build two neurons with a Mad Scientist, and watch them communicate. Elementary School+.
See what is happening in the brains of Mice on Drugs. Great for health class.
Explore sensation with the Touch App. Students can record which neurons fire when, and how each neuron’s firing pattern differs.
And further lessons and activities are found here.
Lesson Plans
Our Connectomics Lesson Plan integrates some of the material found here and features and EyeWire worksheet.
TED-Ed hosts videos that are paired with quizzes, links to more resources, and discussion questions. You can easily edit them with the “Customize this Lesson” button to fit your needs. Videos geared toward 9th grade+.
The Mind Matters Series is a set of videos with only neuroscience content.
The following videos in the “Getting Under Our Skin” Series Retina/Plasticity | Color | Illusions | Smell | Pain | Nerves | Pain Relievers | Attraction & Pheromones | Caffeine | Stress
Discovery Education hosts this psychology oriented lesson plan for high school students. It focuses on the scientific process (research, experimental validity). Open-ended and abstract, rather than about neural structures.
Sharemylesson has some great content, but you have to download each element to view it. Tons of non-interactive power points are also available on the website. Many of the plans have overlapping materials,
And the themed, awesome Neuroscience and Zombies lesson plan comprehensively brings all of those materials together.
Nubao created 5 lesson plans with awesome cool activities. Activities cost money ($15-$200) but are well laid out. Some dissection, and middle school approachable.
PBS created a lesson on concussions that includes a variety of resources and a documentary.
This article on addiction has great pictures and graphics. Great for health class.
The Fitzpatrick Lab at Max Planck has an awesome Map Your Own Homunculus activity. If you have computer access, you can use their homunculus animations. If not, students can draw them.
Visualizations
PBS NOVA let’s you highlight a structure in the brain and scroll through coronally, sagittally, or axially following the structure. Blurbs about each structure in the “i” tabs, and the top righthand corner allows you to switch imaging techniques.
FINR hosts a 3D rotating brain and offers a few paragraphs about the function of a structure when you click on it. It also offers explanations of common brain injuries, highlighting the affected region. Middle school+.
If the brain was the size of the earth… is an awesome infographic for middle school+!
Here are a few 3D animations of previously mapped EyeWire neurons. Illustrative of the complexity of a neuron, and the connections it makes. Middle school+.
Virtual Neurons is an interactive neural circuit builder from BrainU. Students drag and drop neurons on their screen, connecting them and watching them fire. Lesson plans are found at the bottom in “Attachments”.