[Student Profile]
[Prompt & Essay]
Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
I was frustrated, just like a majority of the world. Within days, I lost an exciting summer of research at UCSF due to COVID-19. I realized that if I was struggling to cope with quarantine, 6-year-olds must be bouncing off the walls. I decided to bring one of my passions, neuroscience, to first through third graders through an online neuroscience camp I named Brain Camp for Kids. I knew that technologically-savvy 6-year-olds could easily outsmart me in a virtual summer camp, so I had to come up with activities that kids would genuinely enjoy. Additionally, I had several constraints: along with being virtual, everything had to be accessible and created for kids to participate independently. Unfortunately, no activities on the internet had accounted for the global pandemic. Thus, I devised my own plan. I created neuroscience coloring worksheets, sourced videos and a catchy Brain Song, and designed neuroscience-themed board games. When I learned about the PPE crisis, I
suggested a voluntary $25 donation from participants and donated all proceeds to Get Us PPE.
To see how students would react to my curriculum, I hosted a trial session. Some activities, like the Brain Song, went extremely well: kids were engaged and enjoyed practicing the song until they could sing it from memory. Other activities, like the explanatory videos, didn’t. As kids lost interest, I noticed the color on their faces rapidly change as they clicked through tabs. So, I created a hands-on brain experiment—using eggs to demonstrate the importance of cerebrospinal fluid—that became a camp highlight. One student even brought a book of facts to class, exclaiming, “Ms. Ritika, tell us brain fun-facts!” Seeing the other students’ faces light up, I incorporated five fun-facts at the beginning of every class.
After weeks of hosting Brain Camp, I looked forward to seeing smiles on kids’ faces as they perfected an off-key rendition of the Brain Song. The camp was so successful that I added sessions to accommodate more kids. Despite the challenges, I transformed an uneventful quarantine into a summer of sharing my passion for neuroscience with 45 children and raising $1340 for COVID-19 relief.
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