Flanagan-Cato LM, Plate RC, Steele C
… +1 more, Jenkins AC
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2023 · PMID 37588647
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"Everyday Neuroscience" is an academically based community service (ABCS) course in which college students teach basic neuroscience lab activities to high school students in an under-funded school district, working in sm..."Everyday Neuroscience" is an academically based community service (ABCS) course in which college students teach basic neuroscience lab activities to high school students in an under-funded school district, working in small groups on hands-on science activities for 10 weekly sessions. The present study examined the possible psychological and social effects of this experience on the college students, in comparison with peers not enrolled in such a course, by observing and surveying the high school and college students across the 10-week course period. First, the teaching-learning sessions in the course successfully promoted science-focused discussion between the high school and college students for 45 to 60 minutes each week. Second, college students in "Everyday Neuroscience" reported higher positive affect and less intergroup anxiety at the end of the semester compared with the control group of college students who were not in the course. Finally, surveys of the high school students revealed that they found the sessions to be positive social experiences. These findings reveal that a neuroscience-based community engagement course can be both a positive experience for the community partner and a benefit for college students by promoting psychological and social wellness.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2023 · PMID 37588646
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Traditional course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are common approaches to expose students to authentic laboratory practices. Traditional CUREs typically take up most of or an entire semester, require a...Traditional course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are common approaches to expose students to authentic laboratory practices. Traditional CUREs typically take up most of or an entire semester, require a laboratory section or may be a standalone lab course, and require significant financial and time commitments by the institution and instructors. As such, CUREs are harder to implement at institutions with fewer resources. Here, we developed a mini-CURE, which are typically shorter in duration, called the COVID-19 and Taste Lab (CT-LAB). The CT-LAB requires significantly fewer resources ($0.05/student) and time commitment (two class periods) than traditional CUREs. CT-LAB centers around the biological relationship between COVID-19 susceptibility and taste status (non-taster, taster, and supertaster) as well as potential implications for public policy behavior. Students participated in a class-wide study where they examined if taste status was related to COVID-19 susceptibility. They found that non-tasters had a higher likelihood of testing positive previously for COVID-19 compared to tasters and supertasters. To assess student outcomes of this CURE, students completed a pre- and post-test assessment including a content test, STEM identity survey, taste test, COVID-19 history test, and a modified CURE survey. Content test scores improved while STEM identity and attitudes about science were unchanged. A direct comparison to a repository of traditional CUREs shows that the CT-LAB produced comparable benefits to traditional CUREs primarily in skills that were particularly relevant for the CT-LAB. This work suggests that mini-CUREs, even as brief as two class periods, could be a way to improve student outcomes.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2023 · PMID 37588644
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Two electrode voltage-clamp (TEVC) electrophysiology in oocytes is a common approach to studying the physiology and pharmacology of membrane transport proteins. Undergraduates may learn to use TEVC methodology in neuros...Two electrode voltage-clamp (TEVC) electrophysiology in oocytes is a common approach to studying the physiology and pharmacology of membrane transport proteins. Undergraduates may learn to use TEVC methodology in neuroscience or physiology courses and/or in faculty-mentored research experiences. Challenges with the methodology include the cost of commercially available recording chambers, especially when a lab needs multiple copies, and the additional time and expertise needed to use agar bridges and to stabilize solution flow and minimize noise from solution aspiration. Offering a low-cost and accessible recording chamber that overcomes these challenges would lower the barriers to success for undergraduates while also supporting publication-quality recordings. To address these issues, we developed a recording chamber using stereolithography, a 3D printing process. The physiology (PhISio) recording chamber features two options for solution aspiration that allow for individual preferences, optimizes placement of pre-made agar bridges to achieve laminar flow and reduce the time delays in initiating daily experiments, and minimizes the challenges of changing solution height and aspiration noise during perfusion. We compared the functionality of the PhISio chamber with a commercially available Warner Instruments RC-1Z chamber in electrophysiological recordings of inwardly rectifying potassium channels expressed in oocytes. The PhISio chamber produced equivalent results to the RC-1Z chamber with respect to time-dependent solution changes and has several operational advantages for both new and experienced electrophysiologists, providing an affordable and convenient alternative to commercially available TEVC recording chambers.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2023 · PMID 37588643
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Neuroscience is inherently interdisciplinary. This interdisciplinarity can be lost due to the self-contained nature of each course in most undergraduate neuroscience programs, leaving students to draw these cross-course...Neuroscience is inherently interdisciplinary. This interdisciplinarity can be lost due to the self-contained nature of each course in most undergraduate neuroscience programs, leaving students to draw these cross-course relationships on their own. We sought to address this by using short, creative research assignments on a topic of the student's choice ("Deep Dive" assignments) that provided students with the opportunity to explore common applications across two concurrently run core neuroscience courses housed in different departments. We tested whether unifying the available Deep Dive topics across the two courses improved student outcomes. Specifically, students were asked to select a topic of interest from a shortlist shared in the two courses. Our results show that harmonized, concurrent creative assignments across dissimilar neuroscience courses improved outcomes related to student interest in material, confidence in creative problem solving, content recall for the other course, and applicability to real life. To our surprise, there was no added benefit to be in the same topic for both courses. Instead, the addition of harmonized Deep Dive assignments themselves, even if assigned on different topics across the two courses, drove the outcome improvement.
Carter BS, Jewett DC, Kelly S
… +1 more, Stavnezer AJ
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322052
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Participation in scientific conferences is a fundamental part of neuroscience and student training. Many conference opportunities have been cancelled, limited, or changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper...Participation in scientific conferences is a fundamental part of neuroscience and student training. Many conference opportunities have been cancelled, limited, or changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is a conference report from a joint virtual 2021 meeting of two regional undergraduate neuroscience conferences, the Midwest/Great Lakes Undergraduate Research Symposium in Neuroscience (mGluRs) and the Midwest Regional Neuroscience Conference (MidBrains). We discuss our conference planning logistics, benefits and challenges of the virtual conference format, student feedback on the virtual meeting, additional benefits of a joint meeting, and "take home" messages and considerations for future conferences. We hope insights from our experience can benefit future conference organizers in planning scientific conferences, both for in-person and virtual settings.
Casimo K, Fanselow EE, Nahmani M
… +2 more, White LE, Grisham W
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322051
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Students often find neuroanatomy a daunting exercise of rote memorization in a dead language. This workshop was designed to enliven the teaching of neuroanatomy. We recast the topic by extending it to the cellular and su...Students often find neuroanatomy a daunting exercise of rote memorization in a dead language. This workshop was designed to enliven the teaching of neuroanatomy. We recast the topic by extending it to the cellular and sub-cellular levels, animating it by learning to build a brain, and infusing the topic with the lively arts. Due to COVID's interference with the usual schedule of Society for Neuroscience (SfN) events, the 2021 Professional Development Workshop on Teaching was held as a webinar on April 12, 2022 with a follow-up question and answer session on June 7. In this workshop, not only were innovative teaching methods presented, but also the very definition of neuroanatomy was pushed to the limits-even reaching into the molecular and subcellular level. The presenters provided means of engaging students that were no cost, low cost, or well within the reach of most academic institutions. Judging by the attendance, this webinar was quite successful in its goals. Our speakers presented exciting and varied approaches to teaching neuroanatomy. Kaitlyn Casimo presented how the vast resources of the Allen Institute could be employed. Marc Nahmani described how open data resources could be utilized in creating a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) on neural microanatomy. Erika Fanselow presented novel ways to overcome one of students' big hurdles in grasping neuroanatomy: understanding 3-D relationships. Len White described a creative approach in teaching neuroanatomy by incorporating the humanities, particularly art and literature. This article presents synopses of the presentations, which are written by the four presenters. Additionally, prompted by questions from the viewers, we have constructed a table of our favorite resources. A video of the original presentations as well as links to the subsequent Q & A sessions is available at https://neuronline.sfn.org/training/teaching-neuroscience-reviving-neuroanatomy/.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322050
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The Psychoneuroimmunology Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (PNI CURE) was designed with the purpose of engaging undergraduate students in research and discovery. As part of this experience, students were as...The Psychoneuroimmunology Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (PNI CURE) was designed with the purpose of engaging undergraduate students in research and discovery. As part of this experience, students were assigned to a team based on their personal interests. Each team selected a psychosocial variable of interest (e.g., sleep, belongingness, stress, or happiness) and identified two well-validated questionnaires to assess it. Then, student volunteers donated blood samples and completed student-selected questionnaires via Qualtrics. The blood samples were assayed by the course instructor for proinflammatory cytokines. With the collected data, students 1) evaluated the association between peripheral inflammation and their psychosocial variable of interest and 2) created hypotheses regarding inflammation in the brain. Students' experimental results were reported in the form of a research manuscript and scientific poster, both of which comprised 15 percent of their course grade. Further, to evaluate the effectiveness of the PNI CURE, students were asked to complete assessment surveys before and after project implementation. Assessment results demonstrate that participating in the PNI CURE increased self-efficacy and research identity among students. Besides exposing undergraduates at UNC-CH to a comprehensive research experience, we hope to inspire neuroscience educators to adopt and adapt the PNI CURE as a mechanism to broaden undergraduate research opportunities in neuroscience.
Yu HJ, Mulligan C, Hartford EE
… +2 more, McCoy JG, Cyr NE
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322049
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The Neuroscience Learning Community (LC) that Stonehill introduced to its curriculum grew out of the Great Recession of 2008 and the need for our students to gain hands-on, high-impact learning experiences, despite limit...The Neuroscience Learning Community (LC) that Stonehill introduced to its curriculum grew out of the Great Recession of 2008 and the need for our students to gain hands-on, high-impact learning experiences, despite limited resources. This learning model was first reported in 2013, and since then it has undergone changes that were necessary due to the number of credits and amount of time required for that model. Curriculum changes are common, and Stonehill College changed its credit requirements for LCs to meet students' needs. As a result, the new Neuroscience LC model that we describe here reduced credit hours while leveraging new faculty expertise, collaborations, and new community partnerships. This paper reports student evaluations of an LC model adapted to demand fewer credits and less time, but to retain the community-based learning aspect and to increase faculty collaboration, while maintaining a high standard of learning fundamental neuroscience topics. Evaluations suggest that students valued the updated Neuroscience LC because it helped them understand neuroscience concepts and the impact of neuroscience in our world.
Minear M, Rodriguez V, Gellis B
… +1 more, Krosley A
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322048
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Technologies such as 3D printing and virtual/augmented reality have great potential for improving the teaching of highly spatial topics such as neuroanatomy. We created a set of 3D printed and virtual brain cross-section...Technologies such as 3D printing and virtual/augmented reality have great potential for improving the teaching of highly spatial topics such as neuroanatomy. We created a set of 3D printed and virtual brain cross-sections using a high-resolution MRI dataset. These resources have been made freely available via online repositories. We also report a pilot study of the use of both the physical and virtual specimens in the classroom. Students completed a lab exercise where they used either the 3D printed or virtual brain sections to order a set of axial slices from dorsal to ventral. They then labeled the different structures that they found useful in determining the slices' positions. We measured the students' ability to localize 2D brain cross-sections before and after the lab exercise. Overall, we saw pre- to post-test increases in accuracy on a brain cross-sections task compared to a lecture-based neuroanatomy instruction.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322047
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The COVID-19 pandemic pushed educators to engage in remote teaching out of necessity, but as our relationship with teaching technology grows, remote teaching has emerged as a suitable substitute for in-person education....The COVID-19 pandemic pushed educators to engage in remote teaching out of necessity, but as our relationship with teaching technology grows, remote teaching has emerged as a suitable substitute for in-person education. In this manuscript, we detail a course design for remote teaching advanced topics in neuroscience at the undergraduate level. The course and its different features were designed to fulfill a set of learning goals that closely align with those put forth by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Furthermore, these learning goals can be applied to any advanced neuroscience class, regardless of the topic material. To achieve these goals, we created a curriculum with distinct design features. These features included a synchronous lecture-discussion system, asynchronous lesson content videos, guest principal investigators, and deemphasized grading. Instead of traditional examination, the students participated in assignments designed to give them extensive science communication experience. At the end of the course, we indirectly assessed student outcomes using an Instructor Course Evaluation survey distributed by the university. From this survey, we were able to conclude that students' perception of the final course outcome was highly satisfactory, with strong indications that the students believed we met our learning goals. Thus, the course design described herein represents a tool for others wishing to utilize it for remote teaching advanced topics in science.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322046
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Undergraduate neurobiology courses cover neural development as a major theme but there are few labs to provide hands-on experience with these topics. Here we share a 3-week set of lab activities using zebrafish embryos t...Undergraduate neurobiology courses cover neural development as a major theme but there are few labs to provide hands-on experience with these topics. Here we share a 3-week set of lab activities using zebrafish embryos that allow students to see the direct effect of drug exposure on physical and emotional development. In these labs, student expose new embryos (Lab 1) to the environmental toxin lithium chloride, which inhibits anterior development and produces an eyeless phenotype in fixed larvae (Lab 2), and to psychiatric medications fluoxetine and quetiapine, which alter anxiety-like behavior measured live in grown juveniles (Lab 3). Lab worksheets ask students to investigate the signaling pathways affected by these drugs and how they might affect neural development in different ways. Student opinion surveys suggest these lab activities were successful in both providing hands-on work with zebrafish as a model organism for neural development and better understanding of how drugs can impact development of the nervous system.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322045
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Pipetting is an important technique used in almost every molecular neuroscience method including but not limited to, PCR, reverse transcription, immunohistochemistry, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and cell culture. The...Pipetting is an important technique used in almost every molecular neuroscience method including but not limited to, PCR, reverse transcription, immunohistochemistry, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and cell culture. The COVID-19 pandemic has robbed the undergraduate population of time to practice in person laboratory techniques. In response, we have devised a standardized, quick, and fun way to instruct students on the fundamentals of pipetting, serial dilutions, and basic statistical analysis. Here, we offer a standardized protocol for instructors to use to teach undergraduates valuable skills while providing friendly competition. We also offer an example of an undergraduate performing the steps of this protocol with example results and the results from three separate undergrads' first two attempts. This exercise provides laboratories with a method to reintroduce undergraduates to lab basics while standardizing the training thereby saving time lost to the pandemic.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322044
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Neuroscience career paths are rapidly changing as the field expands and increasingly overlaps with computational and data-heavy job sectors. With the steady growth in neuroscience trainees and the diversification of jobs...Neuroscience career paths are rapidly changing as the field expands and increasingly overlaps with computational and data-heavy job sectors. With the steady growth in neuroscience trainees and the diversification of jobs for those trainees, it is important to identify the necessary skills in neuroscience career paths and how well graduate training is preparing our students for this ever-changing workforce. Here, we survey hundreds of neuroscience professionals and graduate students to assess their use and valuation of a range of skills, from bench skills to communication and management. We find that almost all neuroscience professionals report strongly needing management and communication skills, but that these were seen as are less important by graduate students. In addition, coding and data analysis skills are widely used in academic and industry research, predict higher salaries, and are more commonly used by male-identifying graduate students. These findings can help trainees assess their own skill sets as well as encourage educational leaders to offer training in skills beyond the bench, helping to catapult trainees into the next stages of their careers.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 38322043
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With nationwide demand for neuroscience programs increasing, faculty and administrators at a public institution with a liberal arts curriculum sought to develop a distinctive program building on existing strengths that w...With nationwide demand for neuroscience programs increasing, faculty and administrators at a public institution with a liberal arts curriculum sought to develop a distinctive program building on existing strengths that would best fit our primarily undergraduate population. The creation of an interdisciplinary Neuroscience Studies minor was the result of collaborations with university stakeholders. Students taking Longwood University's Neuroscience Studies minor are trained to incorporate neuroscience into their areas of interest. Students take three core courses in neuroscience, including an introductory course, laboratory course, and interdisciplinary capstone experience. Additionally, students select three neuroscience-related courses from their major discipline. To gain broad support, the program was intentionally designed to support the university's mission, academic strategic plan, and several key university initiatives. Importantly for our smaller institution, the minor was implemented using existing university faculty, university resources, and a single hire. Since starting in 2015, the minor has quickly become the third largest on campus with increasing popularity among honors students. Program graduates have applied their training to careers paths as neuroscience Ph.D. candidates, master's degrees in a range of fields such as counseling, speech pathology, nursing, education, and neuropsychology, and others have benefited upon entering the workforce. Longwood's success developing an interdisciplinary Neuroscience Studies minor represents a blueprint for smaller institutions with limited resources, to provide students with an opportunity to learn about neuroscience and prepare for the future job market.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 39036724
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Diversity is a foundational topic in psychology, and APA recommends that diversity is covered across the psychology curriculum. Neuroscience courses face challenges with incorporating diversity-related topics owing to th...Diversity is a foundational topic in psychology, and APA recommends that diversity is covered across the psychology curriculum. Neuroscience courses face challenges with incorporating diversity-related topics owing to the historical lack of neuroscience research that focuses on diversity and the restricted range of diversity-related topics that neuroscience is typically associated with (i.e., health and disability status). This may limit students' learning of neuroscience's contributions towards understanding diversity. We review some specific examples of diversity-related topics that can be incorporated into neuroscience courses. These examples have been selected to include topics across the three major content domains of neuroscience (cellular/molecular, neuroanatomy/systems, and cognitive/behavioral), as well as across multiple diversity-related topics. Neuroscience instructors can use these examples to incorporate greater coverage of diversity-related topics within their courses and/or as points of inspiration for their own curricular additions. Providing systematic coverage of diversity-related topics in neuroscience courses highlights the ways neuroscience advances our understanding of human diversity and contributes to the educational objectives of psychology and neuroscience programs.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
· 2022 · PMID 39036723
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To improve undergraduate students' understanding of neuroanatomy and structure, we leveraged existing virtual reality infrastructure to create a novel dissection assignment in an undergraduate neuroscience course. Studen...To improve undergraduate students' understanding of neuroanatomy and structure, we leveraged existing virtual reality infrastructure to create a novel dissection assignment in an undergraduate neuroscience course. Students completed a virtual reality dissection of the central nervous system that augmented status quo instruction in lecture and textbook format. We found that such an assignment is feasible at a regional comprehensive university with intrauniversity partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Results showed positive engagement from students and feasibility of incorporating virtual reality in undergraduate neuroscience courses.