Western Maryland Brain Bee's Homepage

Amar Mehta, a 17-year-old tenth grader from Newark, Delaware won the 2008 Western Maryland Regional Brain Bee conducted by the Endeavor Foundation for Excellence on Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the Urbana Regional Library in Urbana, Maryland. The contest was officiated by Dr. Norbert Myslinski, Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. The program was sponsored by the Indian Association of Frederick. Zahir Baig and Carolyn Buck, seniors at Urbana High School claimed 2^nd and 3^rd places, respectively.

Amar is home schooled through the University of North Dakota’s division of independent study. He is a straight ‘A’ student, a prolific speller, English vocabulary expert, an aspiring writer and an avid figure skater. Amar’s accomplishments include attaining 1^st place at the North South Foundation’s national spelling bee in 2004 and 6^th place in the national vocabulary contest in 2007. Amar represented India at the Junior World Figure Skating Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany in February of 2007 and at the Junior Grand Prix International Figure Skating Competition in Lake Placid, New York in August of 2007. He recently completed a fiction novel, Dispossession, which will be published in April 2008 by Xlibris Publishing.

The Western Maryland Regional Brain Bee is open to 9^th through 12^th graders from Carroll, Frederick, and Washington counties in Maryland. Students from outside the Carroll, Frederick and Washington Counties and home schooled students are allowed to participate if there is no regional brain bee in their state.

The brain bee is conducted at three levels – regional, national and international. At the regional level the contest is a live Q&A neuroscience quiz competition. The best young brains are quizzed about the brain and how it relates to intelligence, memory, emotions, sleep and brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and stroke. The brain bee is an attempt to motivate youth to learn about the brain and to inspire them to pursue careers in biomedical brain research.

Each contestant is asked one new question in each round. Contestant will be eliminated at the end of the round in which he/she provides an incorrect answer for the 3^rd time. Rounds will continue until one contestant is left standing. All questions in the regional contest

are selected from “the 2005 Edition of BRAIN FACTS” published by the Society for Neuroscience (SFN). This free book can be downloaded from the SFN website at www.sfn.org.

The winner of each regional bee in the US will be invited to attend the National Brain Bee championship scheduled to take place March 14-15, 2008 at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and is sponsored by the Spandana Foundation and the University of Maryland. The National Brain Bee is a quiz competition based on a book published by the British Neuroscience Association. In addition, the competition includes patient diagnosis and a neuroanatomy practical.

The national champion from each participating country will be invited to attend the International Brain Bee (IBB) on May 25-28, 2008 in Montreal, Canada. The IBB is sponsored by the Spandana Foundation, International Brain Research Organization, Canadian Neuroscience Association, Canadian Association for Mental Health and Addiction and the Society for Neuroscience.

The Brain Bee, founded and directed by Professor Norbert Myslinski, is a part of International Brain Awareness Week (BAW). BAW is an effort by brain scientists in 29 countries to educate the public about the importance of brain research, spearheaded by the DANA Alliance (www.dana.org) and the Society for Neuroscience (www.sfn.org).

For any further information about the Western Maryland Regional Brain Bee please contact Dr. Mike Gavini by e-mail at mike.gavini@gmail.com