Interview: Andre Blackman, FastForward Health Film Festival

FastForward Health is an evening film festival highlighting those people innovating and developing new ideas to improve public and community health around the world.

FastForward Health
Andre Blackman

Founded by Andre Blackman (@MindofAndre) and David Haddad (@haddadda), FastForward Health launched on November 1st, 2011. As we near the end of year one, we sat down with co-founder Andre Blackman to talk about the project and where it’s headed.

Andre Blackman is Founder and Managing Editor of Pulse + Signal, a website that features highlights and commentary on the impact/usefulness of technology in the public health landscape. He is the former Director of Digital for the American Heart Association, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate. Andre is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media (over the years, we’ve interviewed two other board members: Phil Baumann and Bertalan Mesko).

The Synapse from BrainU

From visiting classrooms for Brain Awareness Week, Dr. Janet Dubinsky from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota became aware that teachers wanted to learn what neuroscience has uncovered about brain mechanisms of learning and memory. To address this need, the Department of Neuroscience and the Science Museum of Minnesota created BrainU. Her current partner is Dr. Gillian Roerhig from the STEM Education Center.

Launched in 2000, BrainU is a grant-funded professional development program that teaches educators neuroscience principles and effective methodology for teaching neuroscience in the middle to high school classroom. BrainU, the neuroscience teacher institute, provides teachers with up to 160 hours of neuroscience training, materials, and staff support to bring brain science to their students. Participants in these professional workshops receive updates on the latest in neuroscience research — discussion is complemented with hands-on activities and lab work.

The BrainU website provides lesson plans and resources for teachers and some cool stuff, including brain pictures, optical illusions, and movies.

The movie ‘The Synapse’

In the nervous system, the synapse is essential for neuronal function. A synapse is the junction between two nerve cells or neurons, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter. The movie ‘The Synapse’, used with permission from BrainU, tells an entertaining and informative story of how neurons communicate with each other at synapses, changing information from electrical to chemical and back to electrical signals. Check out their story below (the movie opens in a new window).

The Synapse

Copyright 2000-2012, BrainU, University of Minnesota Department of Neuroscience and Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center For Research Resources and the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives of the National Institutes of Health, with additional funding from SEDAPA and ARRA. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NCRR or NIH.