Brains Rule! Site Wins International Awards

The Brains Rule! Neuroscience Exposition Project, a partnership between The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston (SHIS) and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has received international recognition for its Web site, http://www.brainsrule.com. The project is an innovative, educational approach that makes neuroscience accessible to children and adults.

The Web Marketing Association gave the project its Standard of Excellence Award for outstanding achievement in Web site development. The 2004 competition entries and judges came from more than 19 countries. Brainsrule.com received the 2004 Web Smarty Award, judged by international Web design experts. The Web site also has received an Exploratorium Cool Site award and another from Bonus.com, which features games and homework help for children.

The Web site was designed by a team led by Cynthia Phelps, Ph.D., assistant professor of health informatics and coordinator of the Learning and Technology academic focus at SHIS.

"The games to teach kids about the brain are my favorite. They allow us to use what we know about learning and technology to design interactivities to teach in a fun way," Phelps said.

Brains Rule! is funded by a Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.