The Brain Bee, established 1998, is a live question and answer neuroscience competition that is designed to teach students about our most powerful computing machine - the brain.

Every year challenging National Brain Bee Competitions take place in more than 25 countries across 6 continents. The German Brain Bee is hosted by the University of Heidelberg and is held in the Laboratory for Neuroregeneration Research in the University Orthopedics Clinic.
Students learn about such topics as brain cognition and function, the senses, diseases, physiology, genetics, and neural cell biology.

Only 40 nominated students, who have to be in grade 9-12, have the chance to compete, because the registration is strictly limited . Each of them gets a 60-page study booklet and a 30-page study guide to learn everything, what could be important for the competition. In contrast to the Biology and Chemistry lessons in school the students also get to know about interesting disorders, habits and processes dealing with the brain.

After the four sections a team will evaluate the results
and only the top ten will get the chance
on winning the competition in a final Podium Section.
The finalists are asked to answer difficult questions,
but will be eliminated
for answering two of them wrong.
The last remaining contestant on stage will be the German Brain Bee Champion. He will represent Germany in the International Brain Bee.
He gets the flights, the hotel and the entrance sponsored ( over 1000€) and an additional €250 gift card.
The 2nd place prize is a 100€, the 3rd a 50€, the 4th a 25€ and the 5th a 10€ gift card.
All competitors will also get free event T-shirts, souvenirs and a Certificate of Participation.

The competition is parted into four sections.
The Written Section is a short 10-question quiz, which needs a good general knowledge about the brain. Then the students have to answer 2 questions in the Podium Section.
They are standing in front of professors, visitors and the other students.
The following Neuroanatomy Section includes
20 stations, each with a brain, a brain model, a microscope slide, or a photo. The students have to identify the structure and answer a question about it. In the Patient Diagnosis Section every student has to diagnose neurological diseases by using a short description, a patient video and two lab exams.

I participated in the 2013 German Brain Bee
on April 27th. I think it was a challenging and advanced competition with very ambitious students from all around Germany. The atmosphere was pleasant and it was great to get to know so many interesting people.

It is not possible to know the whole study material
by heart, but a good preparation is needed to compete.

Ole Lindner (in the middle)

I recommend this competition to everyone, who is interested in Biology and especially in Neurobiology. You do not need to be the smartest and assiduous student. Just be open to new things and people and give it a good try!

Kind regards, Ole Lindner