The lab enjoyed hosting 15 students as part of the Eureka! at UMass Amherst summer program.

Workshop Organizers:
Julia Choi, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Dan Gregory, Kinesiology PhD student
Gabriela Borin, Kinesiology PhD student
Jan Stenum, Kinesiology PhD student

Participants:
15 Eureka! 8th graders (Rookies)

Program:
The interactive workshop included four activities designed to show students some basic principles of human motor control. In one activity, students recorded electricity from their muscles while they squeezed a hand gripper as hard as they can for as long as they can. In another activity, they tried to convince another student that a rubber hand was his/her own by putting it on a table in front of them while stroking it in the same way as his/her real hand (known as the “rubber hand illusion”). In a third activity, students learned how our brains need to adapt, by trying to trace the diagram of a star while looking at his/her hand only as a reflection in the mirror. Finally, students experienced how the brain learns from recognizing mistakes, while throwing balls at a target with prime goggles.

We developed hands-on activities to interact with kids at the Discovery Museums. We used Muybridge Flipbooks and interactive motion-capture cameras (e.g., Microsoft Kinect) to explain how the human nervous system control and adapt movements. It was a fun Sunday afternoon! Thanks to Denise LeBlanc and Elizabeth Leahey for organizing this Portal to Public program.