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Michael,  we faced similar questions when we designed our new exhibit BodyQuest that opened May 30 of this year.  We stayed away from the usual 5 senses approach to the brain, though we may add those in to the exhibit in the future.  We faced the difficulty of finding a way to introduce visitors to the intricacy of the brain and that mind/brain connection.  We developed a Brain Storm Theater, shaped like a giant brain that 8-10 visitors at a time enter at the brain stem.  Middle school students helped to brainstorm ideas for very short (a few minutes long each) videos.  Each script was filmed from the eyes of the observer.  One script deals with a teen girl going through the process of waking up, eating breakfast and getting ready for school, and finding a big zit on her face.  Another deals with a basketball game and decision making about whether to pass or shoot with the timer running out.  Brain characters (like Frankie Frontal Lobe) show up on the screen and their names are highlighted when that part of the brain is functioning.  The brain characters carry on an "internal" conversation to help detail to the observer each brain part's function in the current situation.  Nerves (LED lights imbedded in the flooring) fan out from the lenticular brain stem (on the floor at the Brain Storm Theater entrance) and branch out to other body systems in the exhibit (digestive, circulatory, etc.).  The most exciting find we were able to include was Mindball, an exhibit seen last year at ASTC.  http://sensoryimpact.com/2004/06/mindball  We plan to continuously update BodyQuest, so definitely have an interest in the subject you are exploring.

We also annually host Brain Blast, an event facilitated by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.  Their  faculty and graduate students staff over 20 tables of family activities: optical illusions,  wear a brain (2 hemispheres to cut out and color that have a tab to wrap around your head), build a neuron (pipe cleaners, straws and Styrofoam balls), touch a real brain (with rubber gloves), see brain slices from brains with and without Alzheimer's, taste a jell-o brain, toxicology, brain teasers, topology puzzles, compare animal brains (rat, sheep), 5 senses demonstrations (taste something with your nose pinched closed, dissect a cow's eye, identify an object only by touch),  brain protection (bike and sports helmets), toxicology and drugs.  In 2004 the Institute funded a Brain shaped hot-air balloon (9 stories tall, I believe) and we had an inflation here the morning of Brain Blast.  We also host a Brain Institute sponsored adult lecture each year on current brain research.

Photos of the 2005 Brain Blast can be accessed here:
http://medschool1.mc.vanderbilt.edu/brain_institute/php_files/BrainBlast2005.php

I would appreciate being on your contact list to see what direction you pursue.  You might also contact NAHEC, the National Association of Health Education Centers, for additional input.

Becky Fox Matthews
Educator/Special Projects
Adventure Science Center
800 Ft. Negley Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37203
615-401-5073
www.adventuresci.com

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