It has been a record year in Lazio for registration in the 2016 Neuroscience Olympics. On February 20, nearly 550 stduents from 22 schools in Lazio, contacted with the help of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, will take the competition entrance examination that will select the 5 best students from every school. This will be followed by a regional selection and a final national selection for the 3 Italian participants, who will participate in the international competitions held during the Neurosciences Congress.
On February 10, Lazio Regional Coordinators Enrico Cherubini (European Brain Research Institute), Laura Maggi (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome), Ada Maria Tata and Andrea Mele (“Charles Darwin” Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Sapienza University of Rome) met with students and professors at the university to illustrate the current panorama of neuroscience and answer student questions.
In this interview by Cecilia Stajano, “School Innovation” Manager for the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, students explain what attracts them to the field of neuroscience. They are two sixteen year-old girls, both called Martina, who attend the Liceo Via Copernico in Pomezia and seventeen year-old Luigi, who attends the Liceo Giulio Cesare in Rome.
The Neuroscience Olympics are the local and national phases of the International Brain Bee (IBB) a competition that tests students aged 13-19 on their knowledge of neuroscience (intelligence, memory, emotions, stress, ageing, sleep and nervious system disease). The main objective of the competition, promoted by the Italian Neuroscience Society, is to develop the interest of young men and women for biology, in general, and studies related to the structure and operation of the human brain, the most complex organ in our body.
The 2016 Neuroscience Olympics will be organised by the Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine at the University of Brescia.
Here are the competition regulations.
