Meet the Brains behind
NeuroKids.org
(and their Mom)

By Laura I. Winn

"That's disgusting…disgusting, but cool!" a 6th grade boy says of the sheep brain held out to him. Nearby, another student laughs as she touches a jiggly red brain modeled out of Jell-O. At the next table, children use Play-Doh to piece together the various parts of a nerve cell, a group of third graders plays the game Cranium at yet another table, and some 5th grade girls puzzle over the optical illusions on display.

It's the last day of school before spring break and the culmination of the First Annual Week of the Brain for the students at Stoneridge Elementary School in Roseville, a week-long celebration and classroom exploration of all things related to the brain and nervous system. On Friday, Dr. Kim Roberts, a biopsychology professor from Sacramento State University, and many of her students, volunteered their time to lead the Brain Faire activities in the auditorium.

The brains behind the event are the brother-and-sister team of Bo Erik, 9, and Shennendoah, 12. "I had no idea this was started by kids!" said Sacramento State student volunteer, Tarrah Hampton. "That's amazing!" Equally amazing is the website that inspired Week of the Brain: NeuroKids.org.

Shennendoah and Bo Erik launched NeuroKids with support and encouragement from their mom, Shannon Hollsten, but they are clearly the driving force behind it. Devoted to "kids teaching kids about the brain," the Web site features fun facts about the brain, games, blogs by the kids and their interviews with experts like Dr. Kim Roberts.

Shennendoah and Bo Erik hope more kids will visit their Web site and request that their schools host Week of the Brain. They would like to see the program expand district-wide, then statewide, then nationwide, and even worldwide. Shennendoah, who plans on becoming a neuroscientist one day, has already written a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger requesting a formal proclamation for an annual Week of the Brain.

Brain Games
Their can-do attitude is no accident. The kids’ mom, Shannon, has always been careful to create an environment at home where learning and fun are synonymous, where curiosity is rewarded with exploration and ideas regularly turn into realities.

“I don’t want them to ever think they can’t do anything,” says Shannon. Growing up, if Shennendoah and Bo Erik wanted to build a rocket or a model of a brain, their Mom would pick up a kit and the family would put it together. Likewise, if the kids had a question, together they’d look up the answer in a book, with Shannon breaking down the more sophisticated verbiage into terms her children could understand. When the kids came to their Mom with the idea for the website, she encouraged that too.

Shannon admits that feeding her children’s hungry minds requires some hard work at times, but she’s quick to add that “at the same time, it’s so easy—you can just go to a toy store or Lakeshore Learning and pick up a kit!”

Shannon believes the kids’ fascination with neuroscience also stemmed—at least in part—from their experiences growing up with children who had neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, autism and ADD. Shennendoah still hopes that her research as a future neuroscientist will one day help children with brain disorders like ADD and autism.

For Kids, By Kids
Shennendoah and Bo Erik recently gave me a tour of their NeuroKids "headquarters." In their Roseville home, the children each have their own desk and laptop computer from which they run their kid-friendly neuroscience Web site.

The children were eager to have me participate in "experiments" and test my knowledge of the brain. "Do you know which part of the brain is the biggest?" Bo Erik asked. "It's the cerebellum!" he answered himself enthusiastically.

Shennendoah and Bo Erik are very hands-on in running NeuroKids. The children use simple and fun activities to explain things like how to determine if you're right-brained or left-brained. "Take your hands and clasp them together," they instructed me. "Now, which thumb is on top?" It was my left. "That means you're a right brainer like us!" They explained this is because the right side of the brain is the creative side and controls things like visual information, emotions and artistic ability. It also controls the left side of the body. The left side of the brain is analytical, and helps with things like math, logic and speaking. It controls the right side of the body.

Bo Erik loves computers and handles most of the web design work, creating pages, uploading videos and adding graphics to the site. According to his mom, Bo Erik was playing computer games before he could talk and acting as informal tech support for teachers and classmates as early as the first grade. "He's just always had an innate ability to work a computer," says Shannon.

Shennendoah mainly contributes to the website through her writing. Shannon will edit Shennendoah's writing for grammar and spelling, but she is careful to let Shennendoah use her own voice in writing the site’s content. "I want them to do this their way," Shannon explains. "We don't need another Web site run by adults. This is for kids, by kids." Still, Shannon carefully monitors the kids’ activities, including all the emails the children receive and send out. Shennendoah spends about an hour each day just on email communication with neuroscientists and other kids interested in the brain.

Both kids devote a lot of time to NeuroKids, but they balance their dedication with everyday kid activities too. They love video games and rock climbing, and they adore animals (this was evident any time one of their cats would enter the room). One of Shennendoah's ultimate goals is to communicate with animals. "With my brother's help, I want to make a machine that will translate animal language to human language and human language to animal language," she tells me.

Bo Erik dreams of creating a computer chip that can be inserted into the brain and download information—a sort of instant, high-tech alternative to reading books. The Hollsten kids’ example and the “anything is possible” attitude they share in their blogs have already inspired other children to start their own Web sites. One recent email came from an elementary school student starting a site devoted to horses.

As the Web site and its maintenance costs grew, Shannon encouraged the kids to create a non-profit foundation to help finance their project. To date, they have raised over $11,000. "That's a lot!" Bo Erik proudly exclaims. They plan to eventually offer scholarships through the foundation for teens who want to study neuroscience.

Shennendoah is poised to graduate from NeuroKid to NeuroTeen this November. On her 13th birthday she will launch a NeuroTeens website. (Bo Erik will continue to run NeuroKids.org.) According to her mother, Shennendoah has “always loved science and mathematics,” advancing to pre-algebra problems in the first grade. But as she and her peers got older, she faced a lot of teasing. Shannon is grateful to Dr. Roberts for acting as a kind of mentor to Shennendoah and encouraging her in a field that remains so largely male-dominated. All were pleasantly surprised when more girls than boys at the school expressed interest in Week of the Brain. Shennendoah explains the appeal this way: “Neuroscience is the first personal science… It’s all about us.”

About the Author
Laura Winn is a freelance writer born and raised in Sacramento. She has written for Prosper Magazine, The Music and Sound Retailer and Ricochet Magazine.
She can be reached at lauraiwinn@yahoo.com.