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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2006
Local Professor Improves National Science Education Efforts
DAYTON, OHIO--One Wright State University professor’s effort to
promote neuroscience education has resulted in an Olympian effort by
students across the country to learn brain facts. The payoff for two
lucky high school students will be an all expenses paid trip to the Society
for Neuroscience annual meeting October 14–16 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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| Dr. James Olson |
James Olson, Ph.D., a professor with joint appointments in the departments
of Emergency Medicine and Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology,
spent the last two years developing a neuroscience event for Science
Olympiad. His campaign to encourage the study of neuroscience at the
junior high and high school level has gained the support of both the
Science Olympiad organizers and the Society for Neuroscience, the world's
largest organization of scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding
the brain and nervous system.
James Olson
Olson has served as a Science Olympiad coach for the past three years
and worked with middle school and high school students in the Centerville
City Schools. The Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization
devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student
interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement
in science education by both students and teachers. The organization
sponsors regional, state, and national interscholastic competitions,
which consist of individual and team events in a broad range of disciplines,
such as biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering.
“I became aware that neuroscience never came around in the cycle
of Science Olympiad events. Neuroscience seemed like a perfect Science
Olympiad subject because it covers cell biology, anatomy, physiology
and pathology in language that is easily learned and relevant to the
materials the kids were picking up in their AP psychology and biology
classes,” Olson said.
Last year, Olson developed Neuroscience…This is your brain, a
trial Science Olympiad event. “I proposed the idea to the coordinator
of the biological events for the national Science Olympiad organization.
The national organization then posted it as a trial event for the 2004-2005
competition year,” Olson explains.
Olson traveled throughout Ohio to Science Olympiad tournaments, and
he wrote, administered and graded all the tests. He also developed curriculum
that was posted on the Internet for students and their coaches to use
in preparation for the neuroscience event.
For the 2005-2006 Science Olympiad season, neuroscience has been incorporated
into the high school Health Science event and also at the middle school
level. Olson hosted a neuroscience trial event on April 29 at The Ohio
State University. The top two teams from this competition will attend
the National Science Olympiad May 19-20 at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Olson approached the Society of Neuroscience for their support of neuroscience
at the Science Olympiad because of the organization’s history of
outreach programs. The Society annually hosts the International Brain
Bee and publishes Brain Facts and the Brain Briefings pamphlets.
Olson said that the best reward is the feedback he gets from the Science
Olympiad coaches and their students.
NOTE: Update to this story on November 30, 2006.
For the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 Science Olympiad seasons, neuroscience
has been incorporated into the high school Health Science event and also
at the middle school level. Olson hosted a neurroscience trial event
on April 29, 2006, at The Ohio State University. The top two teams from
next year's Ohio state competition will attend the National Science Olympiad
May 18-19, 2007, at Wichita State University in Kansas.
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