Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee | McMaster University

Preparing for the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee (CCNBB)

If you have been a competitor in a previous CCNBB competition, you may not compete again.  Please also check with your local brain bee organizers for whether you may compete more than once in your local brain bee competition. 

THESE NOTES ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED FOR 2013.
PLEASE CHECK BACK IN MARCH FOR UPDATES.

For more information regarding the day of the event, please refer to this document/schedule (updated May 22nd): CCNBB.schedule.2013.pdf. The information shown in yellow highlighting in this document is tentative and we will update details as plans come together.  There should be enough information there to get you started making travel plans.  UPDATE:  We have some exciting new lab tours (stem-cell research labs) that will start at 4pm (we couldn't get them later in the evening), so it would be great if you can arrive early enough to join us for these earlier lab tours.  

Let us know if you have any questions (contact Esther Manoian -- her contact information is in the document).  Please also print the CCNBB.campusmap.2012.pdf which contains parking information and location of buildings you will need on campus. 

Competitors -- As soon as possible, please fill out the following survey to let us know your travel plans and accommodation requirements:  
click here to register  

NEW:  We have some release forms that we need you to fill out.  One is a permission form and the other is a photo release form.  Please complete them, and bring them with you to the competition.  Thank you!

Study Resources:

There will be several kinds of tests at the National Brain Bee, including multiple-choice questions, oral questions requiring one word or one phrase answers, a human neuroanatomy test, and a patient diagnosis test.  The recommended study resources for these tests are as follows (check back later in case we have been able to add some additional resource suggestions):

Questions and answers: 

At the Canadian national competition, questions will be drawn from: 
Neuroscience: Science of the Brain, published by the European Dana Alliance for the Brain in many different languages.  This book is also used at the International Brain Bee competition.

The Brain Facts book, published by the Society for Neurosciences (downloadable in PDF format from the Society for Neurosciences web site) might be used as some local brain bee competitions, and it may also be used at the International Brain Bee.  We will not use this one at the Canadian national brain bee.

English version of Neuroscience: Science of the Brain:

• http://brain.mcmaster.ca/BrainBee/Neuroscience.Science.of.the.Brain.pdf  (5 Mb)
• http://brain.mcmaster.ca/BrainBee/about.the.book.pdf  (900k)

This book can be obtained from the website of the British Neuroscience Society: http://www.bna.org.uk/static/brain-science.php. It is also available to download in PDF format in 17 different languages from the IBRO web site at http://www.ibro.org.  From that site, go to "Brain Campaign" where you will find links to all the language versions of the book.  You can also try this link to access the Brain Campaign page: http://www.braincampaign.org/Pub/Pub_Front.asp.

Note that if you use the Brain Campaign site, the book has to be downloaded chapter by chapter.  For your convenience, we have made the English version available as one large PDF document (with all the chapters in one document).  This makes a larger file (5 Mb, from the links provided above), but may be more convenient for you.

Human neuroanatomy: 

The neuroanatomy bell-ringer competition consists of approximately 20 or 25 stations where brains, brain slices, or pictures of brains will be presented.  Check out the video highlights from last year to get an idea (front page of this web site).  The brains will have pins stuck in a particular part of the gross anatomy, and there will be questions at each station that ask for the name of the structure or the function of that structure.  Students will have approximately 2 minutes at each station.  When time is up, a bell will ring, and each student will move to the next station.  To study for this part, look for a human brain atlas and a textbook covering basic neuroanatomy.

Here are a few web sites that might be useful as you study neuroanatomy:
http://www9.biostr.washington.edu/da.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nsdivide.html (for kids, but a good start!)
http://www.med.wayne.edu/diagRadiology/Anatomy_Modules/brain/brain.html
http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/HISTHTML/NEURANAT/NEURANCA.html
http://www.getbodysmart.com/ap/nervoussystem/cns/brain/menu/menu.html
http://nhscience.lonestar.edu/biol/ap1int.htm#brain (some broken links)
http://nhscience.lonestar.edu/biol/ap1int.htm#sense (some broken links)
Sylvius software from Sinauer (http://www.sinauer.com/sylvius4/) (costs about $55)

Patient Diagnosis: 

There will be approximately 8 Standardized Patients who are professionally trained to portray neurological disorders. Students will be required to diagnose the neurological disorders by asking the patients questions.  Students will visit each patient in a patient diagnosis room, and spend about 5 minutes asking questions.  The questions must be of the type that can be answered by "yes", "no", or "I don't know".  The patients will not be allowed to provide any other answers than these.  At the end of the 5 minutes, the student will record the diagnosis for that patient, and move on to the next patient.  There will be 12 possible disorders to choose from: bipolar disorder, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, stroke, Tourette Syndrome, neurological AIDS, chronic pain, and autism (and possibly more, check back here a bit later to see if we have added any). 

To study for this part, you might try the Medical Encyclopedia of Medline Plus which can be found at the National Library of Medicine website: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html

International Brain Bee Resources:

The International Brain Bee will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 22-27, 2012.  Our Canadian champion and guardian will need to make sure they have travel visas approved in time for the trip.  The books "Brain Facts" and "Neuroscience: Science of the Brain" will also be used at the International Brain Bee.  There will also likely be patient diagnosis and neuroanatomy exams.  As mentioned above, the book can be accessed in 17 different languages, but all the questions at the International competition will be asked in English. For more information on the International Brain Bee (including competition breakdown and prizes) see the competition overview section of the IBB website.