In Chelsea Smith’s fifth-grade class at Rosa Parks Elementary, her students not only learned about the brain, but got to share their knowledge with classmates during the class's Brian Museum event. Their assignment was to read articles about the brain and answer three essential questions:

1. How do our brains work? 
2. How do we learn/grow our intelligence? 
3. Why is our ideal learning environment important for our brains? 

Once complete, each student picked a question to answer using a creative project that included a R.A.C.E.-style caption. R.A.C.E. stands for R – restate the question, A – answer the question, C – cite text evidence, and E – explain your evidence. This is a way for students to make sure that they have answered the question in their own words, used evidence to support their answer, and can explain how their evidence supports the answer. 

At the end of the unit, they opened a “Brain Museum,” where they used their presentation skills to share their projects with their peers.

“I learned a lot about the brain. I learned that the brain works to help you process things. It also controls your emotions and how you react to things. It was very fun to experience presenting my creation in front of people. I was really scared and worked really hard. It paid off.” – Aanya, student