Picture a young, inquisitive boy on his dad’s boat, staring at the stars, fascinated by the network of lights before him. Now that he’s grown up, Dr Tony Herdman is just as curious about networks but now the network that he’s passionate about is your brain.

Herdman is just one of several inquisitive minds in his family, where everyone would challenge each other during dinner with logic questions. His science teachers also challenged him and demonstrated how fun science could be through experiments, including one session that had him blow-up sodium contained in a bucket. He is passing on the challenge at the University of British Columbia’s Brain Camp and lab.

The annual “Brain Camp for Kids” has youth dissecting brains and building neuron networks using clay, mini motors, lights and wires. Participants make ‘mistakes’ by detaching and reattaching wires to see how that impacts the motors and lights. Herdman says this process is what science really is – coming up with a system to test your ideas, seeing why they might have failed and then maybe discovering what might be true. Herdman says this happens every day for him as a scientist and for the Brain Lab participants who become their own network of science discovery.