Parents,

I need a moment of your time in that I'm asking you to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and read this. Please read it all.

As you may already know, we are conducting an event for Brain Awareness Week, a public awareness institution which makes neuroscience understandable to the public. Our Psychological Society is a partner with Dana. Most of you have advanced degrees, but unless it is in biology or some phase of healthcare, it is really difficult to read the articles published in neuroscience journals. Dana brings the best of neuroscience to the public, in a form that is understandable and fun. Check out their site at www.dana.org/brainweek. Go to this page, find the gallery, and click on 2008. We are #105!.

We also do research here, though not many of you have been involved since you've been here. The results of this research will be used to further knowledge of brain activity in piano lessons. We will contribute to the scientific community at large, and at the same time, your children will be able to potentially help young piano students of tomorrow.

Here's the plan:

What we will do is twofold; we will first test as many kids as we can during the week of March 14-19 (see your calendar). By test, I mean we will do Cognitive EEG testing involving different phases of piano lessons as conditions. Then, outside of the EEG testing, we will administer some standardized testing which will measure school things, such as language comprehension, math understanding, etc.

After the testing ends, we will then turn the results of the EEG testing into brain maps. When you come in here for your lesson this week and next, you will see some brain maps in our foyer. The children who study here will have their own such maps, and will learn to understand the major brain areas for Brain Awareness Week.

Dates:

1. Saturday, March 13--each child will come to his or her group, and we will talk about neuroscience to each group in a manner developmentally appropriate for that group. Children will get to handle our brain model (Gertrude), and take her apart.
2. Sunday March 14 through Friday March 19--some of the children will have EEG and some cognitive testing done. We have the schedule here and are signing people up now. You must sign up in your lesson.
3. Saturday, March 20--The children will convene again, but this time in larger groups for the Brain Awareness Week event. We will have brain maps ready; students will have a chance to learn more about what cognitive neuroscience has to do with their piano playing. It will be fun!

Information:

• Children 6 and younger will not be tested that week. They cannot stand to wear the EEG caps. We make no exceptions here because we don't have the time to just 'try it' with a younger child. The EEG testing is only open to children 7 and older.
• Children 6 and younger WILL be tested, however, on several cognitive domains during Spring Break week. If you are not here that week, we can make an alternate time for you.We need informed consent from you, so we will hand you the forms for that when we see you.
• ALL CHILDREN will participate in both events (on the weekends). We really want our students to come to understand how their brain works!
• Parents are supposed to stay for this one! Parents will come in and observe, and you can learn along with your children.

How do I sign up??

1. You are supposed to sign up for a time slot during your lesson this week or next. The slots are 1.5 hours long, so there are not many of them. Notice that we are testing on Sunday.
2. We will create a wait list, since some of you will not be able to come to your test.
3. If you cannot come, we ask you to give us 24-hours notice or more. These times are precious, take both of us, and some children who want testing won't be able to be tested until April.
4. We will feed back to you the results of the testing with some interpretation.

What should I do to get ready?

1. Sign the informed consent form and give us a copy. You may keep a copy for yourself.
2. To get ready for the EEG test, please have your child wash his or her hair the day of the test. Body oils, regardless of how slight, make it very hard to do EEG.
3. Get good sleep the night before; we will be asking a lot in our hour of testing!
4. Parents may watch given that they do not make comments or otherwise attempt to communicate with the child. Just sit back and enjoy!

That's it. We can answer other questions in your lesson.

* these dates are on your calendar, but you may not recall them. Please make sure you have the correct calendar. I revised it a few months ago.