• A big brain has been made by children from BACA and local primary schools to learn more about brain science
• The Brain has been on display at the Jubilee Library in Brighton and two large international conferences at the Brighton Centre since April.
• It is a culmination of a year-long programme of public outreach work by Sussex Neuroscience a research programme at the University of Sussex.

Sussex Neuroscience, a leading research programme at the University of Sussex, have brought a giant brain back to the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) where it began its creation as part of the Building Brains Connecting Communities Project earlier in the Spring.

The colourful brain, which was created by local school children, is on display in the main atrium of BACA where it will take pride of place during the School’s end of year celebrations, Culture Week (10^th to 14^th July) and Diversity Week (17^th to 21^st)  

The Building Brains - Connecting Communities Project which was in collaboration with the University of Sussex Widening Participation Team and the British Neuroscience Association and began in March. Sussex neuroscientists worked with a year nine class at BACA  exploring the brain and how it works, before inviting over 200 primary school children to come and visit BACA to take part in workshops to learn all things brain, as part of their science education. The vertical slices of brain were decorated at BACA by Ms Swift’s art classes and art club, the horizontal slices by year 5 and 6 classes from Coldean,  City Academy, Fairlight and St Martin’s  primary schools. 

Since its completion the brain has been on display at the Jubilee Library in Brighton, the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex and two international conferences at the Brighton Centre, the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) International Festival of Neuroscience in April and the European Congress of Psychology in July. 

Leader of the programme, Dr Sarah King, Reader in Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Sussex said: “I have loved this year, doing completely different things to my normal job in the lab and teaching university students. The brain has been a real showcase for all our outreach work and is fab, every time you look at it you see something different. It was a pleasure to work with BACA, the children were truly inspiring. We are already planning next year!”

Mr Davies, BACA Principal said: “It is great to be working so closely with Sussex University at such an exciting and innovative time.

Being part of the building of the Brain has provided many opportunities for our pupils at BACA and also many local primary schools, to experience a number of educational workshops.  This links fantastically with the pupils' ongoing science education and allows them to gain more in-depth knowledge of the brain and neuroscience.

I hope we can continue our link with Sussex University, to support many more BACA pupils and schools within our local community.”

For more information about the neuroscience research going on at the university or be involved in future outreach projects, email s.l.king@sussex.ac.uk