Ohio State University’s Neuroscience outreach program spans all of Ohio and most of the greater midwest area. On Oct. 10, OSU set up shop in the CCA lab to show off what neuroscience is and stimulate excitement for it and other STEM fields.

“We offer a lot of activities that help students understand neuroscience in a fun way,” project lead Daniela Dlozynski said. “We have five lab stations that have unique opportunities many students may not have gotten in their normal classes.”

Opportunities like learning the function of different parts of the brain while holding an actual human brain or understanding neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change, by throwing a beanbag while wearing vision distorting goggles.

“Of course, we want to promote Ohio State,” program advisor Dr. Lauren Strand said. “However, ultimately we just want to get people excited about science and discover what areas they might be interested in that they have not considered.”

Though neuroscience is often synonymous with medicine, there are a lot of fields that share the neuroscience school.

“The neuroscience major is controlled by two schools, the college of arts and sciences, which deals with psychology and biochemistry, and the college of medicine,” Strand said. “It makes Ohio State unique because most universities don’t have such a secular curriculum, especially for hard sciences.”