There are honeybees and killer bees and even spelling bees, but did you know there also are brain bees? The International Brain Bee is a competition among high school students covering the field of neuroscience. It”™s been taking place for 20 years and now involves approximately 175 local competitions in more than 50 countries involving more than 50,000 students. In White Plains, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital has been staging local Brain Bees for seven years.
A sophomore from Horace Mann high School, Malhaar Agrawal, won this year”™s competition at Burke that involved 20 students. He was awarded $500 and will compete in the Brain Bee”™s U.S. Championships in Washington, D.C. The winner of the U.S. championship will advance to the international championship in Germany.
The second- and third-place finishers came from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School on Long Island. Sophomore Alyssa Iryami came in second while senior Zachariah Samuel placed third.
The students were quizzed on subjects such as human neuroanatomy, neuroscience, types of diagnoses and brain cell identification by a panel of therapists from Burke.
