Welcome to the Backyard Brains wiki page, an open-source experimental how-to's for teachers and amateurs alike. If you are a high school teacher, you may be interested in what Educational Standards we adhere to as well as the lesson plans we are beginning to assemble below.

Experiments

Here is a list of experiments we are currently working on. If you see an error, or want to make it better/clearer, we encourage you to edit the section. To keep the spam robots at bay, please e-mail us if you want to get an account to this wiki.

Exp	Name	Description	Lessons
1	Getting Started with Spikes	In this module, you will listen to action potentials and view "spikes" in real time. An excellent starting point for your SpikerBox.
2	Introduction to Rate Coding	How do neurons encode information? One way is through rate coding.
3	Effect of Temperature on Neurons	Here, you can investigate the effect of temperature on the firing rate of neurons.
4	Somatotopy	By manipulating the barbs on the cockroach leg, you can learn basic principles of nervous system organization.
5	Microstimulation of Neurons and Muscles	It's the 1780's all over again. Investigate excitability of nervous and muscle tissue with this experiment.
6	Referencing your Spikes	There's no such thing as a perfect ground, but some grounds are better than others, depending on what you are studying.
7	Anuradha Rao Memorial Experiment: Effect of Nicotine and MSG on Neurons	We now move to the cricket cercal preparation to investigate neuropharmacology.
8	NeuroProsthetics	What if we fed the neural activity of one cockroach leg into another? Neural Engineering 101 in session.
9	Oxygen and Spiking	Why do we need so much of that simple molecule oxygen anyway? Here you find out.
10	Speed of Neurons	With our 2-Channel SpikerBox, you can measure how fast action potentials travel down a nerve. How fast are they?
11	The Faraday Cage	A simple piece of metal screening can drastically reduce electrical noise. But how does it work?

If you are a teacher looking for more extensive experiment materials, you can use the links above to formal lesson plans () and associated powerpoint slides (). If you have used the SpikerBox in your classroom and have invented a new experiment, we would like to work with you to make your experiment available to others.

We have also compiled the full lessons in one large pdf. Expect this draft to grow and improve over time.

Note: Want answers to the discussion questions? E-mail us and we'll send them your way!

Useful Information

The following articles are not experiments, but rather good information to know.

Cognitive Experiments

Want to also teach some basic human neurophysiology? We will be slowly adding guest experiments on how to learn how human brains work through basic behavioral tests.

Retired Experiments

Experiments, that for one reason or other, have flaws.