2025 Hamilton Brain Bee
High school students in the Hamilton-Halton and surrounding area from grades 9 through 12 are welcome to compete at the Hamilton local brain bee, hosted by the department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) at McMaster University. Students will demonstrate their knowledge about the brain and neuroscience, including fascinating topics involving intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, aging, sleep, addiction, and more. Participating is a valuable experience that students can add to their resume — not to mention the possibility of winning prizes and fame! Most importantly, we hope that the brain bee experience will inspire students to learn more about neuroscience and mental health and imagine themselves as tomorrow’s neuroscientists.
Competition Date
The 2025 Hamilton Brain Bee will be held in person at McMaster University on Friday, February 21, 2025. More information on schedules, parking and specific locations will follow.
Registration
Registration has not yet opened: A link to the registration survey will be made available closer to the event date.
Please note that there are nearby local brain bee competitions held in London, Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor, and Toronto. Students may not compete in more than one local brain bee competition each year, and must compete at the location that is closest geographically to their high school.
Prizes
There will be prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners (details will be posted closer to the event). The 1st place winner will represent Hamilton at the Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee competition. Additional exciting prizes are awarded at the Canadian National competition, and the winner of the Canadian National Brain Bee will represent Canada at the International Brain Bee competition.
Study Materials
The following two study resources were used for the 2024 Hamilton Brain Bee competition, and are a good place to start studying for the 2025 competition.
1. Open Neuroscience Initiative (online resource)
2. Brain Facts 2018 (80 Mb PDF)
3. Functional Neuroanatomy (Only the regions of the brain and Cross Sections)
(If we add new study resources, we will list them here.)
Follow us on Instagram!
If you have questions, please reach out to hamilton@brainbee.ca.
History of the Hamilton Brain Bee at McMaster University
Thank you to all our competitors, to the graduate and undergraduate students who presented their research, to our judges, and to the great brain bee organizing team and all the volunteers! The Brain Bee wouldn’t be possible without your support.
2024 Hamilton Brain Bee
Congratulations to our 2024 Hamilton Brain Bee winners!
FIRST PLACE: Elena Scurtu, Burlington Central High School (middle).
SECOND PLACE: Stephanie Beti, St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School (right).
THIRD PLACE: Jason Lee, Oakville Trafalgar High School (left).
The competitors this year really put the brain in Brain Bee! Congratulations to ALL!
Our 2024 Hamilton Brain Bee competitors:
Abbey Park High School: Shubhra Dutta, Sylvia Guo, Ojasvi Monga, Shriya Sekar.
Burlington Central High School: Elena Scurtu (FIRST place).
Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School: Claire Ang.
Hillfield Strathallan College: Amelia Kiung.
Iroquois Ridge: Aariana Chowdhury, Camille Maarse, Sanya Sharma, Emma Stanoeva.
Oakville Trafalgar High School: Caleb Li, Vera Qian, Andrea Yan, Jason Lee (THIRD place).
Richmond Green Secondary School: Iniyan Manimaran.
Ridley College: Yuki Ma, Jocelyn Wang, Hellen Wang, Li Wen Wang, Melissa Weng, Yu Zhao, Julia Ren.
St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic Secondary School: Jasmine Montrichard.
St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School: Alexis Orellana, Annmary Sebastian, Angela Baiju, Briana Carciumaru, Ibiye Davids, Eesha Omkar Krishna, Madeline Maier.
St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School: Stephanie Beti (SECOND place).
Westdale Secondary School: Alex Douglas, Cyra Huang, Josephine Yang.
Westmount Secondary School: Shagun Misra.
2024 Sponsors:
2023 Hamilton Brain Bee
Congratulations Sienna Su!
Sienna won 2nd place at the Canadian National Brain Bee competition!
Thank you to everyone who helped make the 2023 Hamilton Brain Bee a success!
Date/Time: Friday, April 28, 2023 (11:30 am – 4:00 pm)
Location: Psychology Building, McMaster University, Hamilton ON
FIRST PLACE: Sienna Su, Iroquois Ridge High School (middle).
SECOND PLACE: Brian Wang, Ridley College (left).
THIRD PLACE: Tori Vincent, Abbey Park High School (right).
Our 2023 Hamilton Brain Bee competitors:
Abbey Park: Minji Kim, Kate Xu, and Tori Vincent (THIRD place!).
Dr Frank J Hayden: Fariba Waseem.
Hillfield Strathallan: Yutong (Charis) Cui.
Iroquois Ridge: Betty Qiu, Yojith Sai Biradavolu, Amy Zhang, Camille Maarse, and Sienna Su (FIRST place!).
Ridley College: Jocelyn Wang, Jintao (Ferris) Wen, and Brian Wang (SECOND place!).
St Thomas More: Claire Daly, Sarah Moran, Shiza Sajid, Alexis Orellana, Briana Carciumaru, Neah Mathew, Sammy Abbas, Niko Corr.
Westmount: Conrad He.
White Oaks: Reina Xue, Leo Bai, Samantha Murillo Carmona.
More photos on Flickr
2023 Sponsors
We are pleased to tell you about our Hamilton Brain Bee sponsors for 2023:
| Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds | Picone Fine Food |
| McMaster Campus Store | Cumbrae’s Dundas |
| The Red Door Cucina | Cafe Domestiique |
| McMaster Faculty of Science | Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour |
Registration
Registration is now CLOSED. Registration deadline was extended to Thursday, April 20 2023 at 11:59pm.
You will receive an email from Google Forms with your responses after you click on Submit. This is your confirmation that your registration was successful. Contact hamilton@brainbee.ca with any questions.
Please note that there are nearby local brain bee competitions held in London, Waterloo, Windsor, and Toronto. Students may not compete in more than one local brain bee competition each year, and must compete at the location that is closest geographically to their high school.
Study Materials
https://www.austinlim.com/open-neuroscience-initiative (online resource)
https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/toc.htm (online resource)
Brain Facts 2018 (80 Mb PDF)
Tutorial Sessions
The following online (zoom) tutorial sessions will be hosted by undergraduate students in the PNB Honours B.Sc. Neuroscience program. The 6 sessions are listed below along with topic and zoom link:
April 01: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (Saturday): Session 1: Neuroscience Basics
April 04: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Tuesday): Session 2: Senses, Perception, & Movement
April 08: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (Saturday): Session 3: Learning, Language, & Emotions
April 13: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Thursday): Session 4: Brain Aging & Diseases
April 21: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Friday): Session 5: Patient Diagnosis Practice
April 26: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Wednesday): Session 6: Final Review + Practice
Prizes
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will each receive a gift basket from Picone Fine Food in Dundas, and gift cards to McMaster Campus Store for $300 (1st place), $200 (2nd place), and $100 (3rd place). Each of the top 3 will also receive a trophy plaque. The 1st place winner will represent Hamilton by competing at the Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee (May 19-20, 2023). Additional exciting prizes are awarded at the Canadian National competition each year. The winner of the Canadian National Brain Bee will represent Canada at the International Brain Bee (August 3-5, 2023).
Thank you to everyone involved in the 2023 Hamilton Brain Bee!
High school students in the Hamilton-Halton and surrounding area from grades 9 through 12 are welcome to compete at the Hamilton local brain bee, hosted by the department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) at McMaster University. Students will demonstrate their knowledge about the brain and neuroscience, including fascinating topics involving intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, aging, sleep, addiction, and more. Participating is a valuable experience that students can add to their resume — not to mention the possibility of winning prizes and fame! Most importantly, we hope that the brain bee experience will inspire students to learn more about neuroscience and mental health and imagine themselves as tomorrow’s neuroscientists.
If you have questions, please reach out to hamilton@brainbee.ca.
Follow us on Instagram!
2022 Hamilton Brain Bee
Congratulations to all the high school students who competed on April 30th! It was a fantastic day. We would like to thank the high school students as well as our Neuroscience undergraduates who helped make the day a success. Finally, a huge thank you to all our judges, and our organizing team of faculty and graduate students. We’ve highlighted our team on these slides.
Our Winners for 2022!
2021 Hamilton Brain Bee
In 2021, the Canadian National Brain Bee and ALL the local Brain Bees across Canada were held virtually.
This was our first time doing this and we learned a lot. To support the other local brain bees in Canada, our McMaster organizers ran a combined competition over two days. On day one (Friday, June 4, 2021) we hosted 16 simultaneous (virtual) local brain bee competitions, which involved multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and a Final Showdown between the top 3 students. The winners of each of those local competitions competed the next day (Saturday, June 5, 2021) in the 2021 Canadian National Brain Bee competition.
We did not get photos (aka screenshots) of the16 local competitions, unfortunately.
Congratulations to our winners and all our competitors at the Hamilton Brain Bee:
Hannah James, Westdale SS: First Place
Sunish Mam, Burlington Central HS: Second Place
Caroline Huang, Abbey Park HS: Third Place
Adriana Bozzo, St. Thomas More CSS
Britney McDonald, Westdale SS
Lorena Morcone, St. Thomas More CSS
Anargi Perera, St. Thomas More CSS
Milenna Raposo, St. Thomas More CSS
Lucas Skaljin, St. Thomas More CSS
2020 Hamilton Brain Bee
We are very sorry to announce that the 2020 Hamilton Brain Bee competition has been cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19. At this time, all nonessential events at McMaster University have been cancelled. We will be contacting students who have already registered for the 2020 competition, and we will provide updates as plans for our 2021 Hamilton Brain Bee progress.
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Psychology Building (Building 34 on this map), McMaster campus, room 155.
Registration
Registration is now closed.
How to prepare
High school students in the Hamilton-Halton and surrounding area from grades 9 through 12 are welcome to compete at the local brain bee. Students demonstrate their knowledge about the brain and neuroscience, including fascinating topics involving intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, aging, sleep, addiction, and more. Participating is a valuable experience that you can add to your resume — not to mention the possibility of winning prizes and fame!
All the questions will come from Neuroscience: Science of the Brain.
We are sorry that all tutoring sessions have also been cancelled.
Prizes
There are prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. The 1st place winner’s name will be engraved on the Hamilton Brain Bee perpetual traveling trophy plaque and this plaque will be displayed in the trophy case at their school for one year. The 1st place winner will also represent Hamilton at the Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee (May 22-23, 2020). Graduate students from our department will help the winner prepare for the national event. Additional exciting prizes are awarded at the national competition each year. The 2020 CIHR Canadian Brain Bee champion will win a trip for two to represent Canada at the 2020 International Brain Bee competition, which will be held in Washington D.C.
2019 Hamilton Brain Bee
16th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee at McMaster University
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Congratulations to all our competitors at the 2019 (16th) Hamilton McMaster Brain Bee!
Photos!
Our top 3 winners: Congratulations!
From left to right:
2nd Place: Judy Lui, Thomas. A. Blakelock High School
1st Place: Aditya Bhardwaj, Abbey Park High School
3rd Place: Madeline Chiang, Abbey Park High School
2018 Hamilton Brain Bee
15th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee at McMaster University
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
On April 11, 2018, a fantastic group of high school students competed for the Hamilton Brain Bee championship. First Place winner, Shaya Naqvi, will represent Hamilton Brain Bee at the Canadian National Brain Bee competition on Saturday, May 26th.
Congratulations to all our winners and participants of the 15th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee!
First Place: Shayan Naqvi, St. Andrew’s College
Second Place: Hannah James, Westdale Secondary School
Third Place: Shaffan Khalid, Milton District High School
Fourth Place: Gratiana Chen, Oakville Trafalgar High School
More Photos Here!
Our Brain Bee competitors for 2018 were: Tasnia Noshin Westdale Secondary School, Emily Hutter Iroquois Ridge High School, Ayesha Nainar Westdale Secondary School, Sadhana Jeyakumar Westdale Secondary School, Jeremiah Hasiholan Oakville Trafalgar High School, Lauren Fong Iroquois Ridge High School, Ghufran Al-Bander Robert Bateman High School, Christine Kim Westdale Secondary School, Joseph Kikukawa Iroquois Ridge High School, Arda Dumanli Oakville Trafalgar High School, Emma Frketich Westmount Secondary School, Shiuli Khanna Milton District High School, Vineeth Jarabana Abbey Park High School, Patrick Liu Oakville Trafalgar High School, Nauman Milton District High School, Iman Umair-Qaiser Milton District High School, Jasiya Janjua Milton District High School, Judy Liu T. A. Blakelock High School, Gratiana Chen Oakville Trafalgar High School, Shaffan Khalid Milton District High School, Aiman Dhiloon Iroquois Ridge High School, Hannah James Westdale Secondary School, Shayan Naqvi St. Andrew’s College, Samuel Creighton, Sarah Kaye
2017 Hamilton Brain Bee
14th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee at McMaster University
Friday, April 7, 2017
Photos here! Congratulations to all our competitors, and especially to our winners taking:
First place: Denzil Boyd, Milton District High School:
Second place: Patrick Liu, Oakville Trafalgar High School:
Third place: Emma Frketich, Westmount High School:
Best of luck to Denzil Boyd, as he prepares to compete in the Canadian National Brain Bee on May 27th!
Our other competitors, who performed amazingly well are:
Aiman Dhiloon, Iroquois Ridge High School
Arda Dumanli, Oakville Trafalgar High School
Christine Kim, Westdale Secondary School
Ezequil Joshua Bulfango, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Lauren Fong, Iroquois Ridge High School
Lina Lombo, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Martina Gobran, St. Thomas AquinasCatholic Secondary School
Raiyan Sayeed, Westdale Secondary School
Shaffan Khalid, Milton District High School
Sineli Gamage, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Tamara Slavkovska, St.Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Vanessa Noia, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Veronika Krouguerskaia, Oakville Trafalgar High School
2016 Hamilton Brain Bee
13th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee at McMaster
April 11, 2016
We have our 2016 winners! There was a great group of contestants (PHOTOS). In no particular order, our contestants were: Adam Sunavsky from Bishop Ryan; Emma Allen from Oakville Trafalgar High, Wendi Qu from Ancaster High, Shawn Lee from White Oaks Secondary, Krishnan Shyamkumar from Hillfield Strathallan College, Shannon Harris from Westmount Secondary, Kristal Cerga from White Oaks Secondary, Jeffrey Huang from Westmount Secondary, Rebecca Pickett-Foley from Assumption College, Taha Aziz from Westmount Secondary, Bailey Gardien from Assumption College, Alannah Mosimann from A.N. Myer, Sasha Roshan from Westmount Secondary, and Lee Jiang from Westdale Secondary.
First Place: Adam Sunavsky, Bishop Ryan
Second Place: Emma Allen, Oakville Trafalgar High
Third Place: Wendi Qu, Ancaster High
Congratulations everyone! It was a tough competition! Adam will represent Hamilton at the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee, hosted by McMaster University on Saturday, May 28, 2016. Good luck Adam!
2015 Hamilton Brain Bee
12th Annual Hamilton Brain Bee 2015 at McMaster
We had a great day today!
See our collection of photos here.
Our top 3 winners are:
1st place: Steven (Hyeok) Jun Lee, Westdale Secondary School
2nd place: Daphne Walford, Westmount Secondary School
3rd place: Adam Sunavsky, Bishop Ryan
Steven will represent Hamilton at the Canadian National Brain Bee at the end of May. Congratulations everyone! And good luck to Steven!
The 12th Annual 2015 McMaster Hamilton Brain Bee was held on Thursday, April 9th. The competition was held in the Psychology Building on McMaster campus, hosted by the department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour.
This year, 1st place will to be taking home their very own Muse EEG headset, courtesy of Interaxon! Introducing Muse: Changing The Way The World Thinks
“Muse: the brain sensing headband is a brain fitness tool that helps do more with your mind by helping you calm and settle your mind.”
2014 Hamilton Brain Bee
11th Annual 2014 Hamilton Brain Bee:
Wednesday April 9th, 2014
We have our winners! See our collection of photos here.
First Place (photo left): Jae Eun Lee (Iroquois Ridge High)
Second Place (photo middle): Martin Matuvi (Orchard Park Secondary)
Third Place (photo right): Shawn Lee (White Oaks Secondary)
All of the competitors performed excellently (names and photos coming soon).
Congratulations everyone.
Good luck to Jae Eun Lee, who will represent McMaster at the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee on May 31st.
2013 Hamilton Brain Bee
10th Annual 2013 Hamilton Brain Bee:
Thursday, April 11, 2013
We had a great group of competitors today. Even though the size of the group was a bit smaller than expected due to the forecast for freezing rain and/or ice pellets, the competition was just as fierce as the weather.
Our top three competitors:
First Place (photo middle): Sharon Yang (Westdale Secondary School)
Second Place (photo left): Jae Eun Lee (Iroquois Ridge High School)
Third Place (photo right): Simone Valade (Westmount Secondary School)
UPDATE: Sharon Yang went on to win the 2013 CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee, and she represented Canada at the International Brain Bee in Vienna! Congratulations Sharon!
The rest of the competitors were not far behind, it was a very close competition.
2013 McMaster Hamilton Brain Bee competitors (left to right):
Gazal Kukreja (Hillfield Strathallan), Sharon Yang (Westdale), Ivana Drobac (Holy Trinity), Alina Bielak (Hillfield Strathallan), Michelle Murdock (Hillfield Strathallan), Keerolos Youssef Tawadros (John Fraser), Fawad Ahmed (Ancaster High), Martin Matuvi (Orchard Park), Raphael Koh (Iroquois Ridge), Jae Eun Lee (Iroquois Ridge), Daphne Walford (Westmount), Imasha Perrera (St. Thomas More), Simone Valade (Westmount).
2012 Hamilton Brain Bee
9th Annual 2012 McMaster Hamilton Brain Bee:
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
This was one of our largest competitions ever. We had 40 students competing from high schools across the Hamilton-Halton-Niagara region. Click here for more photos of the event!
Iroquois Ridge High School cleaned up this year, winning 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Awesome work — congratulations!!! Our three top place winners are shown below, from left to right:
Manjot Sangha (1st place), Tina Yuan (3rd place), and Alicia Rajwani (2nd place).
Congratulations to Manjot, who will be representing us at the 5th Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee, held at McMaster on May 26, 2012.
Here is the 2012 Brain Bee flyer. On February 21st, our visitors arrived at 12:30 pm. By car, park in Lot I (SE corner of campus near Main and Cootes; see map) and walk east to the Psychology Building (building 34 on the map): http://www.mcmaster.ca/welcome/campusmap.cfm. There will be someone in the lobby of the Psychology Building to show you where to go.
THE 2012 NINTH ANNUAL MCMASTER BRAIN BEE WAS SPONSORED BY:
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB)
- Faculty of Science at McMaster
- School of Graduate Studies at McMaster
2011 Hamilton Brain Bee
8th Annual 2011 McMaster Hamilton Brain Bee:
Tuesday, February 23, 2011
Winners! From left to right in the photo: Dr. Joe Kim: Co-organizer, Sophie Geffros, Holy Trinity, Second place!, Jason Fan, Westdale, FIRST place!, Jessica Blackwood, Hillfield Strathallan, Third Place!
Jason Fan, the winner of the 2011 McMaster Brain Bee, will represent us at the Fourth Annual CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee (CCNBB) on May 28, 2011. Big cash prizes! Trophies! Recognition! Stuff to add to your resume! Competitors from all over Canada will come to compete for the National title. Check out the CCNBB website for some great highlights of the National competition: http://brainbee.ca.
The winner of the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee will represent Canada at the International Brain Bee held in Florence, Italy 2011. Competitors from countries all over the world will compete for the International title and prizes! More cash prizes! More trophies! More fame!
Here is the 2011 Brain Bee flyer.