Tuesday 15 September 2026

Data collection is underway!

Today was our first official data collection day inside a Year 1 classroom! The children spent the whole school day engaging in exciting outreach activities to learn about their brains and senses, as well as taking part in fun games on the iPads to decorate Sandy the dolphin’s cave, find some hidden shells, rescue underwater treasure, and feed some very hungry fish.

Highlights included hearing the sea roar from inside a shell, drawing around a friend’s body and learning how the different senses connect to the brain, and matching some interestingly shaped brains to the animals!

We’ve had an amazing time in the schools we’ve visited so far, and can’t wait to see more!

Thursday 27 August 2026

Team trip to the Museum of Zoology!

The SHELL study team visited the Museum of Zoology today for their ‘Oceans’ Family Day. We had a fascinating time, learning about the ocean wildlife, seeing shells and coral, and even having the opportunity to hold the ear bone of a whale!

We also got the chance to see the Oceans Trail in the Grand Arcade shopping centre, with its wonderful art installations and the ‘true and false’ maze. The Oceans Trail is still in place until 31 August 2026, if you get chance to go and take a look.

https://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/oceans-family-day-museum

https://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/oceans-trail-grand-arcade

Friday 24th July 2026

Teacher focus group

Today we spent a lovely morning meeting with some fabulous primary school teachers, who are helping us to design the educational activities for the SHELL science outreach day. The teachers discussed the plan for the day and shared their thoughts on what they thought would work well. The SHELL study team are looking forward to updating the activities based on this helpful feedback and finalising the plan for the outreach days, ready to start visiting schools in the Autumn term!

Friday 10th July 2026

Primary school visits!

This week, the SHELL study team were delighted to visit two primary school classes. We asked the children to help us by trying out some games to find out more about how people listen. The children also took part in fun science outreach activities, learning more about their senses and their amazing brains!

Tuesday 2nd June 2026

Calling all primary school teachers!

We are looking for some teachers to form a focus group to provide feedback on our science activities to make sure we are offering something that will appeal to schools, is curriculum relevant and they think will be engaging for the children. The aim for the study is to run a whole day of activities (including time for our data collection tasks) that relate to the brain and senses. In the focus group we will present our plan for the project and outline these activities and will ask for
feedback in a structured way. We can pay focus group members £10 per hour (the session will likely be a couple of hours) and we can also
reimburse travel and will provide refreshments.

To find out more or to sign up, use the contact form on this website or email us at shell.study@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

Thursday 28th May 2026

Junior Scientist Day!

During May half term, we were delighted to welcome families to our most recent Junior Scientist Day. There were lots of fun activities, including making brain hats, pipe cleaner neurons, and even neuron face painting! Thank you to everyone who came along – we hope you enjoyed taking part!

Tuesday 5th May 2026

Join us at our next Junior Scientist Day on Thursday 28 May!

Join us for an afternoon of fun activities to do with the brain at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. During the afternoon we will have a selection of stalls for children to do brain-related crafts and quizzes and learn about how our amazing brains work! They will get to chat to neuroscientists and can have a go at some of the tasks we like to use.

Helping us out

As part of this afternoon we are asking children (and their parents if they want) to try out our games we are making to measure hearing and listening skills. These are short, fun iPad-based games that we are planning to take into schools for a big study in September and we want to know what works and what doesn’t. If you are happy for your child to try these games to help us make them better that would be great! When you arrive we will give you an information sheet and consent form. If you don’t want them to try them or don’t want us to use their game scores that’s completely fine, they can still join in with everything else!

To find out more or sign up: https://tinyurl.com/yc7venps

Thursday 9th April 2026

Junior Scientist Day!

The SHELL team were delighted to welcome more families to the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge on Thursday 9th April. We had an afternoon full of of brain crafts and games and lots of fun finding shells under pictures. The children were so helpful trying out our games so we could work out what worked and what didn’t. Thank you to all the families who came along – we hope you had fun!

Thursday 19th February 2026

Our first Junior Scientist Day!

In February half term we welcomed 5-7 year olds and their families to the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit for our first Junior Scientists Day! Children were invited to test out the tasks and games that have been specially developed for the study. There was plenty of fun helping a dolphin decorate their cave, whilst also gathering valuable information about how the team can best run the study with 5 – 7 year olds. The children also really enjoyed making brain hats, matching brains to which animal they belong to and being junior scientists!