our visits were part of our lab time , which unfortunately meant that we were interacting with the second graders at the end of their day . activities .
all activities chosen except for the brain puzzle were adapted from brain - related activities found on dr .
. we chose activities using the following criteria : they needed to be time - flexible , fun , and cheap . activities needed to be able to be included in a modular fashion , depending on how much time we had in the classroom and on the abilities of the students on that particular day . since we knew that we would be reaching almost 500 students , any  disposables 
our biggest expense was the brain puzzle , because we wanted to make enough so that each student could have one and take it home .
we constructed 500 brain puzzles using recycled manila folders , brain images , simple text about basic functions of the brain , plastic ziplock bags , tape and glue .
we found a colorful labeled brain image on the web ( many exist ; we used one from http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/06/05/your-brain-on-trading-101/ ) and saved costs by printing them out four to a page .
we cut each brain into 710 pieces and placed the pieces into a ziplock bag which was then taped into the inside of the folder .
we typically did the brain puzzle as the first activity , after introductions and the discussion about college .
once the second graders had assembled the puzzle , the denison students briefly described and answered questions about the parts of the brain ( fig .
1 ) . depending on the time available and the focus of the second graders , this activity took between 10 and 20 minutes .
afterwards , when the second graders did different activities relating to their senses or to movement , we related these experiences to the relevant parts of the brain .
the goal of the mystery sock activity was to have students identify common objects using their sense of touch , which we then related back to the parietal lobe .
our mystery socks consisted of plain white sports socks filled with items that would present some interesting tactile contrasts and that were objects that i had around the house : markers , glue sticks , whiffle balls , playdough , pennies , legos , small metal trucks and cars , and tissues .
each denison team had the same assortment of eight socks . during the activity , each child tried to guess the contents of each sock by using their sense of touch alone .
the hardest part of this activity was keeping the second graders from shouting out what they thought was in the sock .
but by asking them to keep it a secret , we were able to keep the experience novel for everyone .
students really enjoyed guessing once everyone had felt all of the socks . a good strategy for keeping track of which students had felt each sock was to have the students form lines in front of the denison students , who were holding the socks ( fig .
the goal of the jelly bean activity was for students to recognize the extent to which taste is affected by smell , and thus also the general concept of how the senses can work together . for our jellybean experiments , we used lifesaver jellybeans because they are inexpensive and have strong flavors and fragrances that most people enjoyed .
typically , denison students ran this exercise by sorting the jellybeans by color and giving all of the second graders the same color jellybean . during the first round
, the second graders were allowed to use all their senses to identify the flavor . during the second round
they were asked to close their eyes , to avoid the color cue , and for the third round , they were asked to pinch their nose to minimize the flavor - amplifying effect of odor .
the mystery noises activity involved producing noises which the second graders had to identify . in some cases , denison students were able to play electronic noises of ice cream trucks , cows mooing , popcorn popping , etc . on their laptops .
these sounds were all found on www.youtube.com . when the internet was not available in the classrooms , denison students created sounds by ripping paper , clapping erasers , dropping a penny , closing a door , etc .
the goal of this exercise was to show how signals can be passed from one neuron to another .
students formed two or three lines with equal numbers of students and were instructed to tap the next person in line once they felt a tap themselves .
a tagged player must hold the hand of the first player and together they have to chase the other players .
as more and more players are tagged , they are added to the chain of neurons .
the game ends when all of the players are part of the chain . student engagement . over the course of each activity , the denison student assigned to monitor second grader engagement observed each student in the classroom .
this was facilitated by the fact that for activities 15 students were typically grouped at desk clusters or in rows .
they noted each student s gender and decided if he / she was engaged or unengaged and recorded this in a data sheet with a + or a - mark .
students were considered engaged when they watched the denison students leading the activity , followed directions , interacted with peers when instructed ( as in the tag and message games ) , and worked independently as assigned ( as in the brain puzzle ) , etc .
students were considered unengaged when they were not looking at the students leading the activities or were talking out of turn , had their head down on their desk , or were otherwise not following directions .
students who received mostly  for an activity were given a 1 for that activity , students who received an approximately equal mix of  and + were given a 2 , and students who received mostly + were considered to have an engagement of 3 for that activity . since these scores are ordinal , we compared student engagement between boys and girls using the mann - whitney test with the improved normal approximation ( zar , 1999 ) .
this test was calculated busing jmp 8 software ( sas institute inc . , 2008 ) .
effect sizes were calculated using cohen s  d  statistics , in which the difference between the means is divided by the mean standard deviation ( cohen , 1988 ) .
denison students also filled out a weekly individual form reporting on how the activities went and what they learned .
they also filled out an anonymous survey commenting on the service learning experience as a whole .
our visits were part of our lab time , which unfortunately meant that we were interacting with the second graders at the end of their day . activities .
all activities chosen except for the brain puzzle were adapted from brain - related activities found on dr .
. we chose activities using the following criteria : they needed to be time - flexible , fun , and cheap . activities needed to be able to be included in a modular fashion , depending on how much time we had in the classroom and on the abilities of the students on that particular day . since we knew that we would be reaching almost 500 students , any  disposables 
our biggest expense was the brain puzzle , because we wanted to make enough so that each student could have one and take it home .
we constructed 500 brain puzzles using recycled manila folders , brain images , simple text about basic functions of the brain , plastic ziplock bags , tape and glue .
we found a colorful labeled brain image on the web ( many exist ; we used one from http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/06/05/your-brain-on-trading-101/ ) and saved costs by printing them out four to a page .
we cut each brain into 710 pieces and placed the pieces into a ziplock bag which was then taped into the inside of the folder .
we typically did the brain puzzle as the first activity , after introductions and the discussion about college .
once the second graders had assembled the puzzle , the denison students briefly described and answered questions about the parts of the brain ( fig .
1 ) . depending on the time available and the focus of the second graders , this activity took between 10 and 20 minutes .
afterwards , when the second graders did different activities relating to their senses or to movement , we related these experiences to the relevant parts of the brain .
the goal of the mystery sock activity was to have students identify common objects using their sense of touch , which we then related back to the parietal lobe .
our mystery socks consisted of plain white sports socks filled with items that would present some interesting tactile contrasts and that were objects that i had around the house : markers , glue sticks , whiffle balls , playdough , pennies , legos , small metal trucks and cars , and tissues .
each denison team had the same assortment of eight socks . during the activity , each child tried to guess the contents of each sock by using their sense of touch alone .
the hardest part of this activity was keeping the second graders from shouting out what they thought was in the sock .
but by asking them to keep it a secret , we were able to keep the experience novel for everyone .
students really enjoyed guessing once everyone had felt all of the socks . a good strategy for keeping track of which students had felt each sock was to have the students form lines in front of the denison students , who were holding the socks ( fig .
the goal of the jelly bean activity was for students to recognize the extent to which taste is affected by smell , and thus also the general concept of how the senses can work together . for our jellybean experiments , we used lifesaver jellybeans because they are inexpensive and have strong flavors and fragrances that most people enjoyed .
typically , denison students ran this exercise by sorting the jellybeans by color and giving all of the second graders the same color jellybean . during the first round
, the second graders were allowed to use all their senses to identify the flavor . during the second round
they were asked to close their eyes , to avoid the color cue , and for the third round , they were asked to pinch their nose to minimize the flavor - amplifying effect of odor .
the mystery noises activity involved producing noises which the second graders had to identify . in some cases , denison students were able to play electronic noises of ice cream trucks , cows mooing , popcorn popping , etc . on their laptops .
these sounds were all found on www.youtube.com . when the internet was not available in the classrooms , denison students created sounds by ripping paper , clapping erasers , dropping a penny , closing a door , etc .
the goal of this exercise was to show how signals can be passed from one neuron to another .
students formed two or three lines with equal numbers of students and were instructed to tap the next person in line once they felt a tap themselves .
a tagged player must hold the hand of the first player and together they have to chase the other players .
as more and more players are tagged , they are added to the chain of neurons .
the game ends when all of the players are part of the chain . student engagement . over the course of each activity , the denison student assigned to monitor second grader engagement observed each student in the classroom .
this was facilitated by the fact that for activities 15 students were typically grouped at desk clusters or in rows .
they noted each student s gender and decided if he / she was engaged or unengaged and recorded this in a data sheet with a + or a - mark .
students were considered engaged when they watched the denison students leading the activity , followed directions , interacted with peers when instructed ( as in the tag and message games ) , and worked independently as assigned ( as in the brain puzzle ) , etc .
students were considered unengaged when they were not looking at the students leading the activities or were talking out of turn , had their head down on their desk , or were otherwise not following directions .
students who received mostly  for an activity were given a 1 for that activity , students who received an approximately equal mix of  and + were given a 2 , and students who received mostly + were considered to have an engagement of 3 for that activity . since these scores are ordinal , we compared student engagement between boys and girls using the mann - whitney test with the improved normal approximation ( zar , 1999 ) .
this test was calculated busing jmp 8 software ( sas institute inc . , 2008 ) .
effect sizes were calculated using cohen s  d  statistics , in which the difference between the means is divided by the mean standard deviation ( cohen , 1988 ) .
denison students also filled out a weekly individual form reporting on how the activities went and what they learned .
they also filled out an anonymous survey commenting on the service learning experience as a whole .
we successfully visited all 24 second grades in newark , oh , and interacted with about 560 second graders .
the activities presented in each classroom varied depending on teacher preparedness , time available and other constraints ( such as achievement testing occurring elsewhere in the building ) .
every visit included the brain puzzle and the jelly bean taste test , and most groups did the mystery socks , but fewer groups did the other activities . all activities except for message transmission had a score of at least 2.5 out of 3 , with the mean engagement for all activities being 2.63 .
the most engaging activity , for both boys and girls , was the neuron chain tag ( 2.77 and 2.81 for boys and girls ) .
a summary of the mean engagement scores of the six activities , analyzed by gender , is shown in figure 3 . when student engagement was analyzed as a function of gender ,
effect sizes measured as cohen s  d  statistics for these activities were small to moderate ( 0.203 and 0.285 ) .
the other four activities ( mystery socks , mystery noises , message , and neuron chain tag ) showed no difference in engagement between male and female second graders , although the message activity might well show a difference with a larger sample size . the first hypothesis , that girls would be more engaged in the brain puzzle than boys was supported ( p < 0.0226 , d = 0.203 ; figure 3 , table 1 ) .
the second hypothesis , that the sensory activities would be gender neutral , was supported by two out of the three sensory activities ( mystery socks and mystery noises ) , but not by jelly beans ( p < 0.0074 , d = 0.285 ) . the third hypothesis , that the more active games would engage boys more than girls , was not supported .
message transmission and neuron chain tag - the favorite of both boys and girls - was gender neutral .
it is worth considering the biases that could have crept in to the observations of the effect of gender on student engagement .
although our class did not explicitly discuss the theoretical gender bias of our chosen activities , saying only that we wanted to have a variety of types of activities to accommodate different learning styles , these students may have formed predictions and this may have affected their scoring .
i tried to minimize the likelihood of bias by creating a rubric for scoring student engagement that relied on simple , clear observations .
i was initially surprised that girls were equally or more engaged than boys for all six activities .
however , this could be due to the fact that  engagement  has to do with following instructions and looking at whoever is giving instructions .
perhaps , if engagement had been structured to be about enthusiasm , jumping out of one s seat , asking questions , and interrupting out of eagerness , boys might have received higher scores .
this experiment could be the subject of an outreach in another offering of this course .
eighteen out of 23 students ( 78% ) thought that the experience of teaching about college and about the brain enhanced their understanding of the content material , saying that they  learned more about the brain and [ its ] functions by teaching 2nd graders .  typical responses from the 22% who did not feel that this experience helped them directly with course content included that the experience  did nt enhance class subject matter but [ they ] did learn more about kids and learning styles . 
twenty - one out of 23 students ( 91% ) felt that the experience gave them a window into solving community problems , saying that this outreach  exemplifies and supports denison s mission  and that they felt proud to have  taken action .
 the two who did not respond affirmatively felt that the college awareness part was certainly important , but did nt think that greater brain awareness could solve this community s problems .
twenty out of 23 students ( 87% ) felt that they had developed a greater sense of themselves as agents of change as a result of the experience .
the three who did not respond affirmatively felt that earlier volunteering experiences had transformed them already .
i feel like i may have left a lasting impression on students who may otherwise get little attention ,  and  i became passionate again about volunteering . 
some students reflected that the experience  made me realize that people in the surrounding community do nt have the great opportunities and constant encouragement that i do . 
they noted that simple things , like sitting at the table with the second graders , and giving them a lot of attention and encouragement , made a big difference .
some comments included : this  definitely enhanced my denison experience ,  the  peak program [ was ] extremely beneficial to both volunteers and participants ,  they  wanted to stay longer to have more impact  , and that the outreach  made me examine myself as a teacher and as a student at the same time .
i think that my students , as well as the second graders , were highly engaged .
i think that the denison students benefitted from seeing male - female differences in learning styles and from analyzing and discussing the data .
i think that they also benefitted personally - either finding a drive to volunteer , or perhaps realizing how fortunate they were .
altogether , we devoted six out of our fourteen lab times to this outreach ( one planning , one preparing and practice , four weeks in the classrooms ) .
part of this extensive time commitment was due to the mission of peak and the program s desire to have every student in the targeted grade level uniformly involved in the outreach .
since this class was a non - majors class , i felt that the benefits of this experience outweighed the costs ( losing time for additional wetlabs or independent projects ) .
i am not sure that i could rationalize using the same amount of time doing outreach for my upper level neurophysiology course .
after this experience , however , i will be looking for ways that we can reach out to the community in a different way for a shorter period of time .
supplementary material : script with lesson plans for each activity ( 1 ) , student engagement forms ( 2 ) , and lab supply list ( 3 ) .
 this article describes a neuroscience outreach program developed by college undergraduates and aimed at second graders . over a period of four weeks 
 , twenty - five denison students enrolled in a non - majors course on gender and the brain visited twenty - four second grade classrooms to engage a total of 464 students . 
 we had a mission to both promote college awareness and to specifically bring some brain science into the classroom . 
 the desire to engage students with the brain was in part a wish to celebrate brain awareness week and in part a wish to follow a feminist tenet of bridging theory and practice via activism . 
 the college students chose six activities : a brain puzzle , a sock content guessing game , a jelly bean olfaction and taste test , mystery noises , a message transmission game , and a version of tag . during our outreach with the second graders , my students monitored student engagement and compared engagement between male and female second graders . 
 engagement was high for nearly all activities but girls were more engaged than boys during the brain puzzle and jelly bean activities . 
 effect sizes measured as cohen s  d  statistics were small to large ( 0.2 to 0.93 ) . the other four activities ( mystery socks , mystery noises , message transmission and neuron chain tag ) showed no difference in engagement between male and female second graders . 
 our program benefited the denison students as well , introducing many to community involvement and awakening in them an interest in teaching or working with kids . 
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Basic plan
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
None