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Hobart High School showed off its brain power at Indiana University Northwest Feb. 2, as its Brain Bee team bested four other area high schools in the fourth annual competition held at the University.

Hobart senior Robin Mitrisin was the gold-medal winner in the individual competition. Fellow seniors Jacob Novak and Rob Smallman won the silver and bronze medals, respectively. As a team, Hobart bested four other competing schools, including first runner-up North Judson-San Pierre High School and second runner-up Michigan City High School. Other participating schools included Hanover Central and Andrean High Schools.

Mitrisin plans to represent her school and Northwest Indiana in the National Brain Bee competition at the University of Maryland in Baltimore next month. She said her advanced placement psychology class had studied brain questions for two weeks prior to the competition, so the material was fresh in her mind.

“We had been studying a little bit every day,” Mitrisin said.

Mitrisin’s psychology teacher, Barbara Loverich, said that Mitrisin is enrolled in the third psychology class of her high school career, so many of the questions in Friday’s regional competition covered material she’s studied before.

“She was very well prepared,” Loverich said.

Friday’s Brain Bee was sponsored by the IU Northwest Department of Psychology. The questions were based on the book “Brain Facts,” published by the Society of Neuroscience, and they pertained to subjects such as memory, intelligence, emotions, sensations, stress, and brain disorders.

The regional Brain Bee competition at IU Northwest took place in advance of National Brain Awareness Week, which this year is scheduled for the week of March 12. National Brain Awareness Week was organized in 1996 by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the Society for Neuroscience to alert the public to advances in neuroscience and to the importance of continued research and education. The week has become both a national and international event, involving programs developed by universities, hospitals, government agencies, research centers, and patient-advocacy groups in nearly 30 countries.

IU Northwest is proud to be a part of this international effort to interest students and the public in important neuroscience issues. We would like to congratulate Mitrisin, Novak, Smallman, and the entire Hobart team, as well as all of the contest’s participants, on their participation and success. We also wish Robin Mitrisin good luck as she represents Hobart High School and Northwest Indiana in the National Brain Bee in Baltimore next month.