Howdy y’all,

So, you’re interested in neuroscience! Of course, why wouldn’t you be? The brain is the most complicated structure in the known universe, unique in that it can contemplate its own workings. It is a 3 pound lump of pink matter (it’s only grey when it’s dead) that makes up all your thoughts and feelings, and its study continuously expands our knowledge of ourselves. Unfortunately, all of those profound descriptions don’t tell you how you might actually study it, particularly when you might not have opportunities to do so at school. Below, I will lay out some suggestions.

First and foremost, I would recommend reading anything by Oliver Sax. He  was a neurologist that had a fascination with the nervous system and how it can end up breaking. His two most famous books were “An Anthropologist on Mars” and “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat”, although any of his other books are well worth reading. Second, I would recommend the PBS series The Brain for an excellent run through of basic neuroscience and its interesting ramifications.

If after you’ve viewed some of the above you are eager for more, some of the free online college courses are absolutely superb for getting to the next level (and also come with the side benefit of possibly getting college credit, although those certifications generally cost money). As a matter of taste, Coursera is my favorite site in this category, and has a bunch of neuroscience courses at the college level. With some patience and commitment, most of these courses should be manageable for a high school student, although you should start with ones labeled “Introduction” or something similar.

If you want a more hands on approach, Backyard Brains is a company that develops kits to let you do neuroscience experiments at home. They will let you do things like record electrical activity from your own muscles, measure individual neurons firing in insect legs, and even let you create cyborg cockroaches that you can control from your phone (No, I am not joking). These kits are high enough quality that we use them in the introductory Rice neuroscience teaching labs.

Another thing that you could do before college is to learn how to program. It is difficult for me to emphasize enough how useful programming is to scientists, and how much being able to code improves your chances of being accepted as a lab intern (see below).  If you have the time, I would suggest learning Python (here is a good start), which is probably the most useful programming language as a beginner.  Beyond being a useful tool, programming can also be thought of as a mirror to neuroscience. In neuroscience, we have a complicated piece of hardware (the brain) that clearly knows how to think, but  scientists have little idea how it works. With programming, we have a piece of hardware (the computer) that we understand entirely, but we are trying to make it “think” in ever more complicated ways. The process of coding can be thought of trying to understand your own thought process enough to teach a computer to do it; in that way, we may understand our own minds a little better.

Is there anything I can do in Houston?

I’m glad you asked.

The Rice Neuroscience Society (RNS) is an undergraduate organization that hosts two events specifically for high school students. The first is the Rice Brain Bee, an quiz bowl style competition with a neuroscience theme that takes place in early spring. The winner of the Rice Brain Bee has the opportunity to go on to a national and international competition. The second event is Rice Neurocamp, a multiday summer program where high school students come to Rice campus and do neuroscience experiments guided by undergraduates. To get on the list to find out more, please email riceneurosciencesociety@gmail.com.

Rice Neurotransmitter is the newsletter for all things neuroscience related at Rice University. They are always on the lookout for good writers and artists, and have a competition for K12 students to submit work. For more information, please see their website or email riceneurotransmitter@gmail.com.

Finally, if you are interested in the Rice undergraduate neuroscience program, I would recommend reading my letter to new students to understand what we’re all about.

But are there any labs I might be able to join?

If you’re interested in interning with local labs, then it is sometimes possible, albeit difficult and never guaranteed. You will need to be over 16 – due to several laws, people under that age are essentially never allowed to work in a lab environment. Additionally, you should treat these as volunteer opportunities, and not something you are likely to be paid for.

The first step is to research what labs there are and figure out what you might be interested in. Rice has some neuroscience labs in the Biosciences and Cognitive Sciences departments. UTHealth Neuroscience, Biology and Anatomy, UTHealth Psychiatry, and Baylor College of Medicine also have a variety of neuroscience labs. These pages list the Principal Investigators (often shortened to PI), which are the leads of each lab. You will need to click through their name to find out the specifics of their research (note that the majority of the faculty in Rice Biosciences do things other than neuroscience). I would suggest taking an hour or two sometime and skimming through every PI on these lists. Take notes on any lab that interests you, and then narrow it down to the three or four you would like to work with. Research them a bit more via google, and then email the PI something succinct like below:

 

Hello Dr. X,

I’m a [junior/senior] in high school, and I have an interest in [specific aspect of neuroscience]. I was reviewing the labs at [Rice/UTHealth/Baylor] and saw that you did [thing you’re interested in], which is something that I’m very interested in. At this point in my life, I think I would like to pursue a career in [whatever you want to pursue a career in], and I would like to see what it’s like to work with [subject]. Would it be possible for me to volunteer in your lab over the summer? [If you have a resume with grades/classes, attach it and mention it here]. I would be happy to discuss this in person or over Zoom with you or people in your lab. If you don’t have time to host a high school student, would you be able to suggest anyone in your field in Houston who may be able to?

 

Do not copy the above directly, but rather use it as a guide. Keep it short. These are very busy people and you should get to the point quickly. If they say no, but suggest other PIs to work with, send those PIs the above emails and note “Dr. X suggested I ask you…”.

Again, I would like to emphasize that lab internships for high school students are rare, and finding them, if it happens, is a time consuming process. It is often better to spend your time playing around with Backyard Brains, learning to program, or taking online courses.

If you have any further questions, I welcome any interested student email me at flynn@rice.edu.