Wait... Fish Can Play?

New paper has fun, hands-on experiments for the classroom to learn the evolution of play

Watch the Fish Play experiment in action. What do you think?

Hot off the presses! Our new peer-reviewed paper just came out in the journal Animals this week. We tested and observed 66 different fish species and found that 88% showed interest in moving laser pointer dots (with a particular fondness for the color red!) How do we know they are playing? The paper looks at five criteria that classifying play in all animals, and argues that the fishes behavior can indeed be classified as play-like.

Sofia, the study's first author, embarked on this project during last year's Summer Research Fellowship. Her study began as a simple replication of a 2014 paper. But over the summer she changed the focus slightly and turned it into a genuine research of fish behavior, complete with behavioral scoring and ethograms (Seen below). A single year from conceptualization to publication, we couldn't be prouder! 💪

Want to try this in your classroom? All you need to replicate this study is a fish tank full of fish and some laser pointers. We are developing teacher guides and lesson plans to make this easier for you to teach. Stay tuned!

See paper here

UC Riverside adds BYB

What do robotic claw and sheep brain dissections have in common?

Both are being used by David Nikom in his outreach sessions in Riverside schools that happen several times a year. David is a neuroscience graduate student researcher at the University of California Riverside, as well as outreach chair of UCR Neuroscience Graduate Students Association.

According to him, the 7-15 year olds have most fun while exploring neuroprosthetics using our Claw. Of course, they also enjoy Human-Human Interface demonstrations. Photo credit: UCR/NGSA

Our gear keeps traveling...

After South Korea and Perú, we decided to revisit Serbia! ✈️

Our team demoing Human-Human Interface with elementary and high-schoolers in Serbia

Our DIY neuroscience gear has already seen over a hundred countries all over the world. And it doesn’t intend to stop! So to scratch the traveling itch, we decided to organize two more demos in Europe—this time, in Branko Radicevic High School and Simeon Aranicki Elementary in the town of Stara Pazova (Serbia). This is the hometown of the wonderful Stefana from Backyard Brains.

How to plant seeds that will hopefully sprout into a lifelong interest in science? By showing kids how to "steal" another person's electrical impulse, of course!

#NeuroscienceEverywhere

And everywhere means home too!

See on Insta

Help us win the 2022 Amazing Maker Award!

All we need is a minute (okay, TWO minutes) of your time.

Human-human interface in remote action

This project of ours just got into the official selection for 2022 Amazing Maker Award by MAKE Magazine, and you can help us win!

All you need to do is head over here, log in or register for a free account, and hit "Vote." The contest is juried, but community votes such as yours count too! Best of all, you can vote for a different (or even the same) project every day. And there are many very cool projects! Deadline is July 15.

Vote here

Read blog post here

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