USD 500 microgrants available for workshops, short courses

General
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  1. Your name, and that of your organisation (or the organisation that will receive funds on your behalf).

Name: María Castelló

Name of the organization: Art & Neuroscience & Technology for Kids (ANT4Kids https://ant.net.uy/ant4kids/), Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (IIBCE), Girls in Tech Uruguay (https://uruguay.girlsintech.org/) and Fibras (Fibras.org https://fibras.org/).

  1. Name of event: Neuro4all

  2. Email address by which you may be contacted: maritacastello@gmail.com

  3. What open science hardware tool(s) will be the focus of your event?
    Neuroscience and Microscopy low-cost devices ( openUC2 (openUC2 · GitHub)Spikeling, Backyard Brains, and Foldscope https://foldscope.com/, Spikeling open source hardware in silico spiking neurons

  4. Describe your course or workshop, whom and what it is for, where and when it will be held, how many attendees (IRL or virtual) you expect.

ANT4Kids organizes hands-on and practical workshops for teachers, children and families on neuroscience and microscopy. We seek to boost society’s interest in these disciplines and encourage the use of low-cost devices in the classroom for performing project-based learning.

Neuro4all will be a 1-day workshop for 30 primary school students and 2 teachers and will take place at Ceilab - Espacio Ciencia (Ceilab – Espacio Ciencia). The team has experience developing this workshop at several locations.

The workshop will be held within the framework of the Uruguayan Science and Technology Week (https://semanacyt.org.uy/), and will be one of a series of events promoting kids’ STEM vocation, focusing on girls.

In accordance with the GOSH Code of Conduct, we aim to “make open science hardware open to everybody”, in particular to primary school students and teachers from unprivileged public schools. We also seek to make open science accessible to everybody despite gender identity and sexual orientation so as to achieve diverse teams. Participating schools will be selected from low-income locations around Montevideo city.

Main aims:

i) To promote a broad advance in the access of Uruguayan primary students to open science hardware in Microscopy and Neuroscience.

ii) To promote interest in Neurosciences through the use of low-cost technologies, facilitating interdisciplinary-multidisciplinary, collaborative work, and encouraging “learning by doing”.

iii) Allow girls, boys and teachers to become aware of the role of the brain in cognitive functions, especially in learning, leading to the development of metacognition.

iv) In the medium/long term, this proposal aims to promote awareness about brain care.

v) To study the impact of access to open hardware in the development of didactic action sequences for the teaching of Neurosciences, facilitating didactic tools.

vi) Research the impact of these activities on the social image of scientists and the role of women in science.

  1. Do you have plans for ongoing activities after this event OR is it intended that the participants will continue activities after this event? If so, describe the intentions and plans here.

With this workshop, we will encourage teachers to use the devices at school and teach children what kind of experiments can be done. Therefore, we expect that this workshop will be the first step for a student´s project. Teachers will receive a device in order to continue activities in the classroom, and we will keep in touch for mentoring teachers on the use of the device for their classes.

  1. What event outputs (e.g. teaching materials, curricula, software, etc.) will you make available? Will these outputs carry an open license?

The hardware that will be used in the workshop will be open source and have an open license.

We will make available the following devices:

  1. What you will use the grant for, roughly.

We will acquire the following equipment and parts:

  1. Minibox (UC2) (9) (USD 270)

  2. Electronic parts for Spikeling (open source hardware in silico spiking neurons).

  3. DIY Muscle SpikerShield (US 64.99 per unit)

  4. Large Muscle Electrodes (US 34.99 per unit)

  5. Shipment - USD 95
    Total: 498.38

  6. Provide links (references) to documentation or reviews of similar
    events or works you have executed. School coursework or projects
    can be listed, even social media posts. Anything to give a sense
    of what you’re about and your ability to successfully conduct this
    course or workshop. To keep this short, just the links and their descriptions will do.

In the following links we shared document of previous Workshops on Microscopy and Neurosciences with low-tech/low-cost/DIY technology, for the diverse public:

Piriápolis
https://www.maldonado.gub.uy/noticias/taller-neurociencias-casa-cultura-piriapolis
CampusParty ¡Participamos del Campus Party 2022! - uruguay
Vacations En estas vacaciones el Instituto Clemente Estable te espera – El Popular
ScienceSpace Taller de Neurociencias con Tecnologías de Bajo Costo – Espacio Ciencia
Ceibal https://twitter.com/search?q=taller%20microscopía%20ceilab&src=typed_query
ODS https://twitter.com/MaritaCastello/status/1573441361688535041?s=20&t=6yA3vcZmYmxEcUtjT-25wQ
OpenDoors Jornadas de puertas abiertas en el Instituto - 1º de octubre de 14 a 20 h - 22º IIBCE Abierto | Ministerio de Educación y Cultura
Event of Girls in Tech Uruguay ¨Jugar Mundos¨, where we participated Jugar Mundos 2022 - YouTube
A completed list can be found at: https://ant.net.uy/ant4kids/

Best wishes!