The Fourth Chandigarh regional brain bee quiz was conducted at the advanced eye centre auditorium of the PGI. Twenty students from 10 schools participated in the event that was organized by the department of Neurology, PGIMER in association with the Indian National Brain Bee(INBB), the International Brain Bee(IBB) and the Society for Neuroscience (SFN).
—-Ms Mehak Trehan of the ———–Sacred Heart School—————- emerged the winner among 18 candidates. ——-Ms Bhanu Priya Thakur—————- of –Delhi Public School was the first runner up and Ms Pooja Bhatia of ——Vivek High School was the second runner up. The top two will participate in the Indian National Brain Bee to be held in Chandigarh on april 2nd and 3rd 2011.
The Brain Bee Quiz is an attempt to motivate our youth to learn about the brain, capture their imagination and inspire them to pursue careers in biomedical brain research.The awareness and the enthusiasm for neurosciences are growing in India ever since Brain Bee contest is introduced into the country. Indian students are fast catching up with those of the developed countries in neurosciences.
The International Brain Bee Competition (IBB) is a 3-tiered Q&A quiz competition that tests the neuroscience knowledge of high school students. The IBB was founded and directed by Prof. Norbert Myslinski of University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1999. Young men and women from all over the world compete to determine who has the “best brain” on such topics as intelligence, memory, emotions, stress, aging, sleep, and various neurological diseases. In order to be eligible to participate in the international competition, high school students must win in their respective local and national bees. The local brain bees are the first qualifying stage of the IBB competition. These are held year round, but most often occur in January or February at more than fifty sites across the world. These Local Brain Bees are sponsored by organizations like colleges, museums, neuroscience associations, corporations and other non-profit organizations. The winner from each local bee is invited to his or her national finals later that year. The national brain bees are the second qualifying stage of the IBB competition. The national bees are held in each participating country, and the winner from each country’s bee is invited to the International Brain Bee Championship.
The Brain Bee Quiz in India is a live question and answer competition about neuroscience for 11th grade (10 +1 CBSC, ICSC, students). The best young brains in India are quizzed about the brain and how it relates to intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movements, stress, aging, sleep and brain disorders such as drug addiction, Alzheimer’s and stroke. All questions in the regional contest are only from book “BRAIN FACTS” published by the Society for Neuroscience which is provided to all the participants at the time of nomination by their respective schools
The 1st Indian Brain Bee was conducted at the Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, in 2005. The 2nd and 3rd Indian Brain Bees in 2006 and 2007 were conducted at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad organized by the NATCO Trust. For three successive years, until 2007, the Indian Brain Bees were conducted at only one regional center. In 2007-2008 the contest was expanded to six metropolitan areas to cover Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. The contests were organized by the NATCO Trust with the help of other corporate sponsors, Biocon, Cipla, Aptuit Laurus, Shasun, and Suven Life Sciences. The first Indian National Brain Bee was held in NIMS, Hyderabad on 29th &30th March, 2008. The Third Chandigarh Regional Brain Bee quiz was conducted last year on 30th January 2010 in which Ms Smriti Mahajan of sacred Heart School was the winner. She represented Chandigarh at Indian National Brain Bee held in Chennai. Ms. Ritka Rajesh Chokhani of Mumbai won the Indian National Brain Bee at Chennai and went on to win the International Brain Bee Championship for the year 2010, held on Saturday,14th, August 2010 in Grand Manchester Hyatt-Hotel in San Diego,US . Ritika is the first Indian to conquer the International Brain Bee(IBB) title ever since India is participating in IBB-Championships from the year 2005.