Week 1, Day 3

Congratulations on completing your first few days with Concussion Alliance!

We look forward to helping you get up to speed on the world of concussions in medicine and research while getting to know your fellow interns. You’ll have multimedia curricula every day, and we’ll spend time on remote teamwork and learning more about each other through social activities and group discussions. 

We’ll have our first Discussion on the 6th International Consensus on Concussion In Sport on Friday at 10:00 am PT | 12:00 pm CT | 1:00 pm ET. 

We’ll also have group social activities this week! We’ll have our first weekly Social Hour Today at 10:00 am PT | 12:00 pm CT | 1:00 pm ET.

***Please make sure to fill out the Preference Form before coming to the social hour!***

Start-of-day Procedure

I’ll outline the procedure that we’d like for you to use to start your days with us this summer. I’ll talk more about this at the welcome meeting and include this text for each “day” page this week.

1. Check Slack for new messages (https://join.slack.com/t/s24cainternship/shared_invite/zt-2kk6yqtsz-mjJV8j7IPH_Iz72xJZoB3w if you haven’t joined yet)

2. Check the schedule in #weekly-schedules on Slack, on the week page in this portal, or on the shared Google Calender (more on that below)

3. Check the ‘day page’ (like this one) for tasks & content

Starting on Thursday (tomorrow)

1. Check your project resource Google doc in your project folder for new resources

2. Check in with your PM on Slack

3. Check in with your project partner(s) on Slack

There is one (new) task to do today:

(Science Writers) Rank your preference for projects!

Please fill out this Project Preference Form today to let us know your preference for projects this summer! The project descriptions are linked on the form, but you can also read them here.

(If you haven’t already) Reach out to someone!

• Reach out to a fellow intern on Slack and set up a time to talk synchronously (zoom, phone, Google Meet, etc.). Try to pick someone from a different school–this is a great opportunity to make connections with folks from around the country with shared interests!

(If you haven’t already) Concussion Alliance emails

• [Time sensitive] Create your Concussion Alliance Google account! 

1. You should receive an email notifying you of a new Google Workspace account from CascadiaNow! – this is your Concussion Alliance email. This account is also connected to the Google Workspace account that you’ll be accessing your project documents through. The link expires in 24 hours, so please sign in to the email as soon as you get it. If you don't see it, check your spam folders.

2. Email Conor from your Concussion Alliance email as soon as you get signed in.

3. Slack Conor if your sign-in has expired, they can send you a password reset email.

• Once you have a Concussion Alliance email, we’ll be able to give you a Grammarly Premium account!

Curriculum for Today

We’ve provided a group of educational resources below. We’ve listed them in an order that we hope will build on your understanding of concussions as you go through them.

Unit 1: What is a concussion? (~40 min)

• Check out these short videos on brain structure

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRFXSjkpKWA (~4 min)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8rhGFJ-2c (~2 min)

• Visualizing concussion mechanisms

• Watch this very short segment of a presentation

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/11qaX5gwviVToZLC_l-AZ-6JoTnsGGQvS/view?usp=sharing (~2 min)

• Here is the CDC “video” that Dr. Camarillo is referring to (~2 min) https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/basics/concussion_whatis.html (it is the first video at the top of the page) 

• Read Persistent Post-Concussion Symptoms — Concussion Alliance (~10 min)

• Read Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction — Concussion Alliance (~10 min)

• New discovery regarding astrocyte cell function in the brain:

• https://now.tufts.edu/2022/04/28/tufts-researchers-discover-new-function-performed-nearly-half-brain-cells (~10 min)

Unit 2: Lived experience, stigma, support (~55 min)

• Read College Students: Peers after Dan Fogarty’s talk on the emotional, spiritual, and physical impact of his concussion (~15 min)

• Read “Friends: 5 Ways to Support Someone with a Brain Injury” after Dan Fogarty’s talk (~15 m)

• How to support friends

• Read this: https://www.concussionalliance.org/blog/2021/1/5/social-support-during-youth-concussion-recovery (~5 min)

• Read this: https://www.concussionalliance.org/college-students#peers (~5 min)

• Read “Volleyball star Hayley Hodson had it all, until blows to her head changed everything” about a Stanford volleyball player with a career-ending concussion and how she is using her experience. Note: this is not necessarily a typical example of the impact of persistent symptoms and in some ways is a worst-case-scenario situation, especially with respect to recognition and reporting in sport. We’re including it to help illustrate the range of impact on peoples’ lives and kinds of obstacles to diagnosis and care that some face. (~15 min)

Unit 3: Shaken Brain (~45 min)

• Read Chapter 2 of “Shaken Brain” (~45 min)