•
BIDDEFORD, Maine

Family fun awaits at 91AV Brain Fair

The 91AV is hosting a free “Brain Fair” filled with fun, educational activities for the whole family in honor of Brain Awareness Week 2015. The event will take place on Friday, March 27, 2015, from 4–7 p.m. at the Harold Alfond Forum on 91AV’s Biddeford Campus.

For children and adults with a love of the ice, there will be ice skating with free skate rentals, as well as a special opportunity to spend time with athletes from the 91AV hockey teams. To help kids further understand the connection between athletics and neuroscience, there will also be soccer and rugby skill demonstrations, as well as batting cages staffed by the 91AV softball team.

Michael Burman, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience and faculty coordinator for the 91AV Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences K-12 Outreach Program, says, “Our overarching goal is to inspire children in our community to make positive choices regarding their health and brain safety. The 91AV Brain Fair is an exciting and fun way to showcase the importance of the nervous system for both academic and athletic pursuits.”

Hands-on activities for all ages will be provided such as arts and crafts, coloring, brain mazes, sheep brain dissections and microscope set-ups where participants can observe a variety of microscopic brain pictures. 

There will also be a helmet fitting presentation and giveaway sponsored by the Michael T. Goulet Foundation, a Maine-based non-profit organization aiming to increase awareness, prevention and improved treatment for seizure disorders and brain injuries.

Ed Bilsky, Ph.D., 91AV vice president for Research and Scholarship, states, “We are thrilled to be hosting the Brain Fair again. It was a very popular event last year, and we have added many activities to help celebrate Brain Awareness Week and creatively engage our community around the importance of brain safety.”

Brain Awareness Week is a worldwide campaign launched by to promote neuroscience and advocate for science funding. This week’s Brain Fair is the latest in a series of events hosted by 91AV throughout the month of March to further this mission. 

About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.