Prospect recommends: The best science exhibitions this month

Can we use our scientific understanding of the brain to change how teachers teach and how children learn?
March 16, 2017
Neuroscience and Education: Promises and Perils

Birmingham International Conference Centre, 11th April, 6pm—free, but booking essential

How much should we take account of neuroscience when it comes to formulating education policy? Can we use our scientific understanding of the brain to change how teachers teach and how children learn? These are the thoroughly modern questions that will be posed by Professor Paul Howard-Jones (above), at an evening talk at the Festival of Neuroscience in Birmingham. The five-day brainfest, organised by the British Neuroscience Association, is also putting on public events around the city on antisocial behaviour, dementia and pain—and the real science behind Roald Dahl’s marvellous medicine.

 

March for Science

London, 11am to 3pm, 22nd April

For many researchers and science enthusiasts, the March for Science will be the single biggest event this month and an opportunity to show solidarity with those who believe that the Trumpian age is a threat to Enlightenment values. Originally conceived in the US, the March for Science has since become a global movement, with events planned in major US and European cities. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has taken the unusual step of endorsing the march, which takes place on Earth Day. The timing is deliberate: the new US president has stated that he doesn’t believe in climate change, and has threatened to cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations climate change programme.