2008 Federal TBI Program

Most Adapted Product Award

Project BRAIN — Virtual School

Tennessee Department of Health

Project Brain AwardThe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Program is pleased to announce that the Health Resources and Services Administration grant project known as Project BRAIN was recognized for its Virtual School as the “most adapted product” at the annual Leadership Grantee meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, April 4, 2008.

Forty-nine states and territories received Federal TBI grants and many develop products which are shared on the collaboration space of the TBI Technical Assistance Center. Project BRAIN’s Virtual School has been the product most adapted by other states which include Georgia, Missouri and Massachusetts.

Project Brain LogoTo correctly identify and appropriately serve students with traumatic brain injury, it is essential that school personnel receive training about brain injury and its effect on children and youth. Project BRAIN staff developed the interactive CD-ROM entitled Virtual School in 2002 and in 2004 made it available on the web.

The training was created using a teacher-oriented model rather than a medical model. The “school” consists of several “classrooms” containing information that is pertinent to school personnel working with students with brain injury. Participants enter the school and access different sections for information. For example, the Nurse’s Office contains general information about the causes and effects of TBI; the Classroom has information on how the effects of brain injury might manifest within the educational environment.

Several states have added the link to the Virtual School to their training websites. The Internet allows these states to bridge the distance to school personnel located throughout their state and provide them with practical, hands-on training available at all times.

Visit the Virtual School:

www.tndisability.org/brain/cd/index.php

Pictured Above: Jean Doster; Janie Martin Heppel, Director of the Federal TBI Program; and Paula Denslow of Project BRAIN with Award

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