Ottawa Brain Bee 2024

The 2024 Ottawa Brain Bee will be taking place IN PERSON on MARCH 23rd 2024!

As we move into a virtual learning environment, our planning committee has worked hard to convert what would be our typical in-person weekend lectures into video lectures that students can pause, rewind and go back over the content on their own time. We’ve created a 10 module online course that covers all of the topics that will be featured on questions in the Brain Bee competition! If high school students are interested in signing up, please email ottawabrainbee@gmail.com and we can register you in our free online course, hosted on Google Classroom.

What is the Brain Bee?

The Brain Bee is a FREE knowledge & trivia competition about the brain and neuroscience for high school students. Participants receive free study material and prizes are awarded to the top participants. The student placing first in the Ottawa Brain Bee wins a paid summer internship at a Carleton University neuroscience lab and is given the opportunity to represent Ottawa at the 2024 CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee. The National Brain Bee Competition will be split into two phases: Phase 1 will be virtual and will take place on Saturday, April 20, 2024. The top 3 finalists from Phase 1 will proceed to Phase 2 which will take place in-person at the 2024 Canadian Association for Neuroscience’s (CAN) annual conference in Vancouver, BC on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. The Canadian National champion will represent Canada at the 2024 International Brain Bee competition. The 2024 IBB will take place virtually between October 5-9, 2024, in conjunction with the annual Society for Neuroscience conference which is being held in Chicago, Illinois this year. The top participants from the IBB will be invited to participate in the IBB NextGen program (a specialized cultural and academic program focused on academic pursuits, career development, and mentorship) and offered the chance to attend a major neuroscience conference the following summer.

Competition is strong and there are currently 15 regional events in Canada that feed into the National competition, with 24 countries sending their winners to the International Brain Bee. To have the best chance at succeeding nationally, participants must start studying and training well in advance.

How do I prepare for the Ottawa Brain Bee?

Sign up for our free online prep course, hosted on Google Classroom. Use the QR code to sign up!

If you have any questions, please email us at ottawabrainbee@gmail.com. You can visit our Study Resources page for further content to help study!

As mentioned above, our planning committee has worked hard over the past year to convert what would typically be our in-person weekend lectures into video lectures. This online course contains 10 modules of video lectures and practice questions, spread out over 10 weeks (roughly 60-70 minutes of content each week). The videos go over the basics of neuroscience, covering topics such as neuroanatomy, cellular mechanisms, disease and disorder diagnosis and brain-body interactions just to name a few! Using these videos as the study guide, students have the ability to go back over anything they may have missed on their own time. In addition to these video lessons, we have provided a basic worksheet of questions we have pulled from our “potential competition questions” bank we have created over the years. We are planning to expand our questions sheet in the years to come to help students study for the competition.

In case students have any questions in regards to the content covered in that week’s module, our planning committee hosts Saturday “Drop-in/Drop-out” style Zoom sessions where students have the ability to come ask any questions they may have. These sessions are not mandatory to attend, this is just a way students can interact with the planning committee members behind creating this virtual learning space.

The virtual course is free to everyone and access is given upon request. You can find further study materials on our study resources page which you can use for individual study if you would like more content.

Attending the online Brain Bee course is a great experience for high school students, whether or not they choose to participate in the Brain Bee. Our video lessons are a great way to learn about the brain, mental health and the latest in neuroscience research. You will have an opportunity to interact with graduate students who can provide advice and support on applying for university and choosing programs. Our Brain Bee participants that go on to do an undergraduate degree in neuroscience or psychology have a real advantage in their first and second year university courses.

Questions? Contact us at: ottawabrainbee@gmail.com for more information.

The 2023 Ottawa Brain Bee was held April 29!

Congratulations to Adam Mulugeta of Ashbury High school for taking First place at this year’s Ottawa Brain Bee competition! As part of the first place prize, Adam got to travel to Hamilton, Ontario to represent Ottawa at the 2023 Canadian National Brain Bee competition. Moreover, Adam, along with former International Brain Bee winner, Helene Li, got to spend their summer working in a Carleton University Neuroscience research lab as part of their first place prizes – a paid research internship! The Ottawa Brain Bee Planning Committee would also like to congratulate Harsh Mutupri and Jet Chiang for taking home second and third place, respectively! And thank you to all the amazing students who participated in the 2023 Ottawa Brain Bee!

This year was the first year that the Ottawa Brain Bee went back to in-person competition since the Covid-19 pandemic, with students getting to meet and socialize with one another in-person while testing their passion for neuroscience! Our planning committee was very excited to bring the competition back in-person, as students got to experience several new things that were previously not possible virtually! During the breaks, students got to take lab tours where neuroscience research really happens, got to meet Carleton University graduate students who explained their research and shared their passion, and were provided lunch and snacks to help feed those hungry, brilliant brains during the competition! Our planning committee was able to bring back a beloved component to the competition that we could not do virtually; patient diagnosis. Students got to assume the role of doctor for this component and run through diagnostic questioning of our group of volunteer graduate students portraying some psychiatric or neurodegenerative disease or disorder! Want to be a part of this? Sign-up using the QR code to get updates about when our FREE prep course goes live!

The 2022 Ottawa Brain Bee was held April 29/30!

Congratulations to our 2022 Ottawa Brain Bee winner, Helene Li! This year’s competition was held virtually, due to on-going Covid-19 restrictions, but that did not stop the Ottawa Brain Bee students from giving it their all during the competition! The Ottawa Brain Bee Planning Committee would also like to congratulate Ruhi Mayar and Harsh Mutupuri for placing second and third place, respectively. We would also like to thank all the students who participated in this year’s virtual competition, it was a blast to host!

This year was a special year for the Ottawa Brain Bee, and for the country. Not only did Helene win the Ottawa Brain Bee, she also showed her true passion for neuroscience and everything brain related by taking home first place at the Canadian National Brain Bee competition, a first for Ottawa! On top of this, Helene got to represent Canada at the 2022 International Brain Bee, where she won FIRST there! Helene’s hard work and dedication was truly on full display as she demonstrated that Canada is the top for the next generation of neuroscientists!

The 2021 Ottawa Brain Bee was held Friday, June 4th!

Leo Vanciu, a grade 11 student at Jean-de-la-Mennais High School took home first place, and went on to place 4th at the CIHR National Brain Bee. Ruhi Nayar, a grade 11 student at Colonel By Secondary School placed second, with Richard Ma, also a grade 11 student at Colonel By Secondary School, placing third. We want to thank all of the competitors for their patience during the competition as it was the first time the Brain Bee went virtual. We would also like to thank our planning committee for helping organize things on the back end for the local competition and on competition day.

The 2019 Ottawa Brain Bee was held Saturday, April 27th!

Sofia Cuertara, a grade 11 student at St. Joseph high school took home first place, and won a paid internship in a neuroscience research lab at Carleton University. Sofia also went on to compete at the Canadian National Brain Bee at McMaster university. Rafidah Chowdhury, a grade 10 student from Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf took second place, and Mihir Kamra, in grade 11 at Colonel By High School, came third! We want to congratulate all our competitors for their hard work and a great showing, and to thank our fantastic volunteers for helping with the training sessions and hosting the event!

The 2018 Ottawa Brain Bee was held Saturday April 28th!

Melisa Eraslan, also from Colonel By high school, took First place, followed closely by David Zhu, also of Colonel By. We’d like to thank all our participants and volunteers for helping us put on a great event and we look forward to working with our students again in 2019, as we start prepping for the next Brain Bee! You can find out more about Brain Bee winners from previous years, here