# BRAINedu: A Window into the Brain/Una Ventana al Cerebro; Providing Hispanic students and families with bilingual resources about brain structure and function, neuroscience careers, and mental health.

> **NIH NIH R25** · TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION, INC. · 2020 · $223,703

## Abstract

BRAINedu: A Window into the Brain/Una Ventana al Cerebro
 Project Abstract – Twin Cities PBS
BRAINedu: A Window into the Brain/Una Ventana al Cerebro is a national Spanish/English informal
education project providing culturally competent programming and media resources about the brain’s
structure and function to Hispanic middle school students and their families. The project responds to the
need to eliminate proven barriers to Hispanic students’ STEM/neuroscience education, increase Hispanic
participation in neuroscience and mental health careers and increase Hispanic utilization of mental health
resources. The program’s goals are to engage Hispanic learners and families by 1) empowering informal
STEM educators to provide culturally competent activities about the brain’s structure and function; 2)
demonstrating neuroscience and mental health career options; and 3) reducing mental health stigma, thus
increasing help-seeking behavior. The hypothesis underpinning BRAINedu’s four-year project plan is that
participating Hispanic youth and families will be able to explain how the brain works and describe
specific brain disorders; demonstrate a higher level of interest of neuroscience and mental health careers
and be more willing to openly discuss and seek support for brain disorders and mental health conditions.
To achieve program goals, Twin Cities PBS (TPT) will leverage existing partnerships with Hispanic-
serving youth educational organizations to provide culturally competent learning opportunities about
brain health to Hispanic students and families. TPT will partner with neuroscience and mental health
professionals, cultural competency experts and Hispanic-serving informal STEM educators to complete
the following objectives: 1) Develop bilingual educational resources for multigenerational audiences; 2)
Provide professional development around neuroscience education to informal educators, empowering
them to implement programming with Hispanic youth and families, and 3) Develop role model video
profiles of Hispanic neuroscience professionals, and help partner organizations produce autobiographical
student videos.
We will employ rigorous evaluation strategies to measure the project’s impact on Hispanic participants’:
a) understanding of neuroscience and brain health, particularly around disorders that disproportionately
affect the Hispanic community; b) motivation to pursue neuroscience or mental health career paths; and c)
mental health literacy and help-seeking behavior. The project will directly reach 72 Hispanic-serving
informal STEM educators and public health professionals, and 200 children and 400 parents in
underserved urban, suburban and rural communities nationwide.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10013244
- **Project number:** 5R25GM129232-04
- **Recipient organization:** TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Rita Karl
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $223,703
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-07 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10013244

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10013244, BRAINedu: A Window into the Brain/Una Ventana al Cerebro; Providing Hispanic students and families with bilingual resources about brain structure and function, neuroscience careers, and mental health. (5R25GM129232-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10013244. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*