Teaching Neuroscience Workshops

Each year since 2005, FUN member Richard Olivo has organized teaching workshops during the annual Society for Neuroscience Meeting.  These pages collect together the schedules, panel members, and handouts  for each of these workshops, providing a single access point to a wide range of truly fantastic neuroscience teaching resources. 

Most recent workshop:

All others listed below

 

2005 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Teaching Neuroscience

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON TEACHING NEUROSCIENCE

Teaching Neuroscience

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS  |   LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

Sunday, November 13, 9:00 a.m. - 12 noon, Washington Convention Center Room 208

DESCRIPTION

 

For those contemplating their first course or revising an existing course, we present a workshop on teaching neuroscience in a variety of settings and levels: for undergraduates in large and small institutions, for graduate students in a neuroscience program, and for medical students.

We will begin with "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," graduate students revealing what they have loved and hated about the courses they have taken, with additional contributions from the audience.

We will then hear examples of real courses taught by gifted teachers: Kathleen Siwicki, Swarthmore College (undergraduates, small college); John Hildebrand, University of Arizona (undergraduates, large university); Karen Gale, Georgetown University (graduate students, core course); and Mark Williams, Duke University (undergraduates and medical students, neuroanatomy). The panelists will explain the prerequisites, expectations, and goals for their courses; the decisions they made in creating their syllabus, assignments, and exams; which topics are easy and hard for their students; and the strengths and weaknesses of the books and resources they use. The audience will be able to ask questions after each presentation.

The workshop will conclude with a video on the art of lecturing by Patrick Winston, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at MIT, published by Harvard's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

 

SCHEDULE

9:00

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Graduate students explain what makes a course good or bad, with additional contributions from the audience.

9:30

PLANNING A NEUROSCIENCE COURSE: A PANEL

Neurobiology for undergraduates: small college.

Kathleen Siwicki, Swarthmore College     SYLLABUS     PRESENTATION SLIDES (PDF)

9:55

Neurobiology for undergraduates: large university.

John Hildebrand, University of Arizona     SYLLABUS (PDF)     PRESENTATION SLIDES (PDF)

10:20

break

10:40

Core neuroscience for graduate students.

Karen Gale, Georgetown University     EXAMPLES     PRESENTATION SLIDES (PDF)

11:05

Clinical neuroanatomy for undergraduates.

Mark Williams, Duke University     SYLLABUS (PDF)     SCHEDULE (PDF)     PRESENTATION SLIDES (PDF)     SYLVIUS

11:30

LECTURING TIPS (video)

Patrick Winston, MIT     VIEW VIDEO  (QuickTime)

 

PANELISTS

 

Kathleen Siwicki

Professor and Chair of Biology, Swarthmore College. Recipient of 2004 Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award; Director of Swarthmore's HHMI Undergraduate Science Education programs; Co-Organizer of East Coast Nerve Net; Summer Investigator at Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Siwicki teaches undergraduate neurobiology courses, labs, and advanced seminars, and mentors student research in Drosophila behavioral genetics.

John Hildebrand

Regents Professor and Professor of Neurobiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Entomology, and Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Arizona; Director, Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology; formerly, Chair of the Program in Neuroscience. Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, co-editor of the Journal of Comparative Physiology, and former president of the International Society for Neuroethology and the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs.

Karen Gale

Professor of Pharmacology, and founding Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University. Recipient of the 2003 AWIS-Bethesda mentoring award; representative to the Carnegie Foundation Initiative on the Doctorate in Neuroscience. Dr. Gale has been a mentor to numerous thesis students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduates.

Mark Williams

Senior Research Scientist, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University. Co-director of the medical neurobiology course; instructor, clinical neuroanatomy for undergraduate, pre-medical, and psychology students. Author of numerous neuroanatomical research papers, developer of the neuroanatomy educational software Sylvius, and an editor of the widely-used introductory text Neuroscience (Sinauer Associates).

Richard Olivo (chair)

Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, and Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College. Developer of "MacRetina," a simulated experiment to record from retinal ganglion cells, and author of an extensive Web site for teaching a neurophysiology laboratory course using invertebrates.

 

2006 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Resources for Teaching Neuroscience

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON TEACHING NEUROSCIENCE

Resources for Teaching Neuroscience

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS  |  RESOURCES LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

DESCRIPTION

 

Whether you anticipate offering your first course or are revising an existing course, this workshop will demonstrate Web resources and software to use with your students. It will also include breakout groups for people teaching similar courses, and a video on effective speaking.

Open to all without preregistration or fee.

 

SCHEDULE

2:00

WEB RESOURCES     

Open Courseware (Richard Olivo, Harvard University and Smith College)

Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (Barbara Lom, Davidson College)

2:45

SOFTWARE

Crawdad, Fruitfly (Bruce Johnson and Ronald Hoy, Cornell University)

Neurons in Action (Ann Stuart, University of North Carolina)

SNNAP (Evyatar Av-Ron and Douglas Baxter, University of Texas Medical School)

Sylvius (Leonard White, Duke University)

3:45

BREAKOUT GROUPS

Introductory and Non-Majors Courses, Molecular/Developmental, Physiology, Neuroanatomy, Biopsychology, Cognitive, Medical/Graduate Core Courses

4:15

VIDEO: "THE ACT OF TEACHING"

(Nancy Houfek, Head of Voice and Speech, American Repertory Theater, Harvard University)

VIEW VIDEO  (QuickTime)

 

PANELISTS

 

Evyatar Av-Ron

Research Scientist, SNNAP Project, University of Texas Medical School, Houston TX. Dr. Av-Ron designed and wrote the tutorial manual for SNNAP (Simulator for Neural Networks and Action Potentials). This hands-on manual takes the user through several computational neuroscience examples, showing how non programmers can develop neural models and run simulations with SNNAP. He is a coauthor of an article describing SNNAP in the Journal of Neuroscience Education (June 2006).

Douglas Baxter

Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston TX. Project Director, SNNAP (Simulator for Neural Networks and Action Potentials) a tool for rapid development and simulation of realistic models of single neurons and neural networks. Dr. Baxter was one of the original creators of the SNNAP software, and continues to oversee its development and distribution.

Ronald Hoy

David and Dorothy Merksamer Professor in Biology at Cornell University, Ithaca NY. Developer (with Bruce Johnson, Bob Wyttenbach, and Pat Rivlin) of "Crawdad" and "FruitFly" software (Sinauer Publishers). Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, one of a select group of "leading research scientists who also are deeply committed to making science more engaging for undergraduates. Their innovative approaches to teaching are infusing undergraduate science with the excitement and rigor of scientific research."

Bruce Johnson

Senior Research Associate, Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University. Developer (with Ron Hoy and Bob Wyttenbach) of "Crawdad" software (Sinauer Publishers). He has taught summer workshops and lab courses sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope/Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, the Grass Foundation, HHMI, NSF and the Marine Biological Lab. He received Cornell's Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching, and was named "Educator of the Year" in 2002 by Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.

Barbara Lom

Associate Professor of Biology and member of the Neuroscience Program, Davidson College, Davidson NC. Editor, The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE). Director of R.E.T.I.N.A. (Research Experience for Teachers In Neurobiology At Davidson College), a unique summer research experience for a high school biology teacher to engage in original biological research, funded by N.S.F.

Richard Olivo (chair)

Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, and Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College, Northampton MA. Developer of "MacRetina," a simulated experiment to record from retinal ganglion cells, and author of a deep Web site with instructions and videos for an undergraduate neurophysiology laboratory course. Named "Educator of the Year" in 2005 by Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.

Ann Stuart

Professor of Cell and Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC. Developer (with John Moore) of "Neurons in Action," a set of tutorials in neurophysiology using NEURON to simulate laboratory experiments (Sinauer Publishers). Member of team earning "Best First Year Medical Course" Teaching Award (Medical Neurobiology, 1989 through 1996, 1998).

Leonard White

Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine and Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham NC. Co-developer (with Mark Williams) of "Sylvius" software (Sinauer Publishers), a suite of digital atlas products for learning human neuroanatomy.

 

RESOURCES

 

 Resources

SfN Workshop on "Resources for Teaching Neuroscience" • October 15, 2006

WORKSHOP'S WEBSITE: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~bok_cen/sfn/

2:00 - WEB RESOURCES

OPEN COURSEWARE (Richard Olivo)

1. INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

Open Courseware Consortium <http://ocwconsortium.org/index.html>

MIT / Brain & Cognitive Sciences <http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/index.htm>

Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology 2003 [Readings]
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-013JCellular-and-Molecular-Neurobiology--The-Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences-IIISpring2003/CourseHome/index.htm>

Cellular Neurobiology 2005 [Lecture Notes]
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-09JSpring-2005/CourseHome/index.htm>

Sensation and Perception [Tools]
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-35Spring-2004/CourseHome/index.htm>

Perceptual Science Group <http://web.mit.edu/persci/>
• Lightness illusions <http://web.mit.edu/persci/demos/Lightness/gaz-teaching/index.html>
• Motion, Form, and Mid-Level Vision: A Tutorial <http://web.mit.edu/persci/demos/Motion&Form/mini.html>

BEN (Biosciednet) <http://www.biosciednet.org>

An Online Lab Manual for Neurophysiology <http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/NeuroSci/courses/bio330/labs.html>

Neurophysiology course <http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/NeuroSci/courses/bio330>

Neuroscience Database Gateway (Society for Neuroscience) <http://ndg.sfn.org/>

Databases of experimental data
<http://ndg.sfn.org/eavObList.aspx?cl=81&at=278&vid=28872&menu_item=dblist1>
Knowledge bases
<http://ndg.sfn.org/eavObList.aspx?cl=81&at=278&vid=28763&menu_item=dblist2>
Software tools for neuroscience
<http://ndg.sfn.org/eavObList.aspx?cl=81&at=278&vid=28769&menu_item=dblist3>

MERLOT <http://www.merlot.org>

Link to Whole Brain Atlas <http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=87873>
Whole Brain Atlas <http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html>
Biology Community <http://portals.merlot.org/biology/>

National Science Digital Library <http://nsdl.org/>

 

2. INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIONS

MERLOT Personal collections

Neurosciences by Hamel-Paquet <http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewPortfolio.htm?id=98021>

del.icio.us ("social bookmarking") <http://del.icio.us/>

Online Neuroscience Lectures <http://www.utdallas.edu/~kilgard/lectures.htm>
Mind and Brain (Wikipedia) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mind_and_Brain>
Computational Neuroscience on the Web <http://home.earthlink.net/~perlewitz/>

Neuroguide Best Bets <http://www.neuroguide.com/bestbets.html>

Mark Dubin's list at University of Colorado <http://spot.colorado.edu/~dubin/bookmarks/index.html

My class's list of tutorial sites (some links are outdated)
<http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/NeuroSci/courses/bio330/pedsites.html

Colleagues' lists

The Neuron Connection <http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/Concepts/Html/theneuronconnection.html>
• snail dissection <http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/Concepts/Html/snail.html>
• modeling Parkinson's diseaase <http://www.davidson.edu/neuroscience/neuronconnection/sim.aspx>

William Heitler's tutorial [The Origin of the Resting Membrane Potential] <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wjh/neurotut/mempot.html>
• other interesting sites <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wjh/>

Sheep Brain Dissection <http://academic.scranton.edu/department/psych/sheep/>
Navigable Atlas of the Sheep Brain <http://www.msu.edu/user/brains/sheepatlas/>

Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections <http://www.brainmuseum.org/index.html>

 

JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE NEUROSCIENCE EDUCATION (Barbara Lom) <http://www.funjournal.org>

 

2:45 - SOFTWARE

Crawdad, Fruitfly (Bruce Johnson and Ronald Hoy) <http://www.crawdad.cornell.edu/home.html>

Neurons in Action (Ann Stuart) <http://neuronsinaction.com/>

SNNAP (Evyatar Av-Ron and Douglas Baxter) <http://snnap.uth.tmc.edu/>

Sylvius (Leonard White) <http://www.sylvius.com/>

 

3:45 - BREAKOUT GROUPS

 

4:15 - VIDEO: "THE ACT OF TEACHING"     VIEW PREVIEW     VIEW COMPLETE VIDEO  (QuickTime)

 

2007 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Innovative Laboratories

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON TEACHING NEUROSCIENCE

Innovative Laboratories

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS  |   LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

Sunday, November 4, 2007    2:00 - 5:00 pm    |    San Diego Convention Center, Room 16A

This year's Teaching Workshop focuses on laboratory courses. Panelists will discuss different ways of organizing lab courses to meet pedagogical goals, and will describe innovative exercises spanning the range from molecular to cognitive neuroscience. Following the panel, breakout groups will allow people to discuss the courses they teach with their colleagues. The workshop will conclude with a video in which students reveal what they expect from laboratory instructors.

The workshop is open to all without preregistration or fee.

 

   SCHEDULE

 

2:00    

 

CURRICULUM: What are our goals for laboratory courses?

"A lab-only course for sophomore neuroscience majors"

Mary Harrington, Smith College

"Pros and cons of a lab component in a capstone course for seniors"

Elaine Reynolds, Lafayette College

2:30    

EXPERIMENTS: Some innovative laboratory exercises.

"Cloning a semaphorin gene in crickets"

Hadley Horch, Bowdoin College

"Measuring and counting sexually dimorphic neurons using NIH Image"

William Grisham, UCLA

"Analyzing extracellular spike trains with a software package"

Raddy Ramos, Queens College, CUNY

"Recording from hippocampal slices"

Dennison Smith, Oberlin College

"Acquiring and analyzing fMRI scans in an undergraduate course"

Mark Hurd, College of Charleston

4:15    

BREAKOUT GROUPS: Discussions with your colleagues.

Introductory and Non-Majors Courses, Molecular/Developmental, Physiology, Neuroanatomy, Biopsychology and Cognitive, Medical/Graduate Core Courses

4:45    

VIDEO: "Teaching Labs"

View this video online                Preview additional videos about teaching.

   PANELISTS & LINKS

 

 

Mary Harrington

Tippit Professor in the Life Sciences, Smith College. Dr. Harrington is the author of The Design of Experiments in Neuroscience (Wadsworth Publishing, 2005), an Associate Editor of the Journal of Neuroscience, the author of numerous articles on neural pathways controlling the circadian clock, and currently the President of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. An article about her laboratory-only course for sophomore neuroscience majors appeared in the fall 2003 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE); the course syllabus is also available online as a PDF file. In 2007, Dr. Harrington received Smith College's Sherrerd Award for exceptional teaching. Email: mharring@email.smith.edu.

Elaine Reynolds

Associate Professor of Biology and chair of the of Neuroscience Program at Lafayette College. Dr. Reynolds has taught Lafayette's capstone neuroscience course in years when it had a laboratory component and in other years when it did not. She also developed and taught the introductory neuroscience course, as well as neurobiology and developmental neurobiology. She received Lafayette's Delta Upsilon Distinguished Mentoring and Teaching Award, and she has involved more than 50 undergraduates in her research on the development of the nervous system in Drosophila. Email: Reynolde@lafayette.edu.

Hadley Horch

Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, Bowdoin College. Dr. Horch designed and teaches lecture and laboratory courses in Neurobiology and Molecular Biology, and teaches an upper-level seminar on Neuronal Regeneration. Her research uses the cricket model system to examine the molecular neurobiological basis of a number of areas including regeneration, behavior, and development. A protocol of her cloning exercise (PDF) is available online. Email: hhorch@bowdoin.edu.

William Grisham

Lecturer and Academic Coordinator, Department of Psychology and Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles. His innovative neuroanatomical exercises were the subject of a 2003 article in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE). Dr. Grisham is an Associate Editor of JUNE and a Councillor for Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. In 2005, he received UCLA's Copenhaver Award for Innovation in Teaching and its Academic Senate Distinguished Lecturer Award. Email: grisham@lifesci.ucla.edu. Additional links:   spinal cord neuron image library;   mouse brain library;   NIH Image (Mac);   NIH Image (Windows).

Raddy Ramos

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY. He is the senior author (with colleagues from the University of Connecticut) of an article in the spring 2007 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE) that discusses spike analysis tools that students can use with extracellular recordings from insects. With colleagues from Queens College, he has written an article on using the digital Allen Brain Atlas to teach cytoarchitecture and create gene expression profiles for the mouse brain. Email: Raddy.Ramos@qc.cuny.edu. Additional links:   William Heitler's DataView software;   Gus Lott's G-PRIME software

Dennison Smith

N.D. Henderson Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Oberlin College. Dr. Smith was a founding member of Oberlin's neuroscience program, one of the first undergraduate neuroscience programs in the United States (1972). He teaches courses covering Introductory Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology, Brain, Consciousness and Cognition as well as a senior seminar for majors. His primary research interests include the neuropharmacology of synaptic plasticity and Parkinson's disease. He is a past president of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN), a recipient of their lifetime achievement award, and the recipient of a distinguished teacher award from Oberlin College. Email: Dennison.Smith@oberlin.edu.

Mark Hurd

Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Program, College of Charleston. Dr. Hurd teaches courses in Neuroscience, Behavioral Genetics, Psychopharmacology and Physiological Psychology. His research interests are in behavioral rhythms in zebrafish, and in functional neuroimaging and bioinformatics. He is the coauthor of "Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): A Brief Exercise for an Undergraduate Laboratory Course," Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE), fall 2006. He also maintains a website with further information about fMRI, which includes the links mentioned in his talk. Email: hurdm@cofc.edu.

Richard Olivo (organizer)

Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, and Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College. Dr. Olivo developed "MacRetina," a simulated experiment to record from retinal ganglion cells, and he is the author of a deep website with procedures and videos for an undergraduate neurophysiology laboratory course. He was named "Educator of the Year" in 2005 by Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. Email: rolivo@fas.harvard.edu.

 

Acknowledgments

Helpful suggestions for planning this workshop came from Mary Harrington (Smith College), Steve George (Amherst College), Andrew Moiseff (University of Connecticut), and Alan Gelperin (University of Pennsylvania).

 

2008 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Teaching for Long-term learning

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON TEACHING NEUROSCIENCE

Teaching for Long-Term Learning

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS  |   LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

 

Sunday, November 16, 2008       |       9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

Washington Convention Center, Room 103B

When we think about teaching, many of us think first about presentation, what we will say and do as teachers. But we also need to think about learning, what our students will absorb and how we can help them be more effective. This year's teaching workshop focuses on structuring neuroscience courses to promote deep learning.

The workshop is open to graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at every level of teaching experience. There is no fee or preregistration.

 

photos from the 2008 workshop

 

SCHEDULE:

9:00

Introduction

Video: "From Questions to Concepts" (Eric Mazur, Harvard University)

Students in a physics course were passing tests but weren't really learning physics. The course changed its approach from "telling" to "asking," posing conceptual questions as part of each lecture, and asking students to work together in class to solidify concepts.

      SEE AN EXCERPT FROM THIS VIDEO, ON "TEACHING WITH CLICKERS"

9:40

Teaching a graduate core course for long-term retention

(Karen Gale, Georgetown University)

10:00

Preparing students for video conferences with researchers

(Michael Barresi, Smith College)     LEARN MORE ABOUT WEB CONFERENCES

10:20

Blogs to foster student writing

(Christina Williams, Duke University)     VIEW POWERPOINT SLIDES (pdf file)

10:40

A wiki for student-authored lecture notes

(Richard Olivo, Smith College and Harvard University)     VIEW EXCERPT FROM A TEACHING POSTER (pdf file)

11:00

The use and misuse of PowerPoint

(Ron Hoy, Cornell University)     VIEW POWERPOINT SLIDES (pdf file)

11:30

Breakout groups

Informal conversations among faculty teaching similar courses.

 

PANELISTS:

 

Karen Gale, Georgetown University

Professor of Pharmacology, and founding Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University. Recipient of the 2003 AWIS-Bethesda mentoring award; representative to the Carnegie Foundation Initiative on the Doctorate in Neuroscience. Dr. Gale has been a mentor to numerous thesis students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduates. Email: galek@georgetown.edu.

 

Michael Barresi, Smith College

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College. Dr. Barresi, a developmental biologist, uses web conferencing within the classroom to engage undergraduates directly with the scientists whose research is being studied. The discussions are also recorded and posted on the class's Web Conferences website. Email: mbarresi@email.smith.edu.

 

Christina Williams, Duke University

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience; former Chair, Department of Experimental Psychology, Duke University. Member of the Finance Committee, SfN. Representative to the Carnegie Foundation Initiative on the Doctorate in Neuroscience. Email: williams@psych.duke.edu.

 

Richard Olivo, Smith College and Harvard University (workshop organizer)

Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, and Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College. Dr. Olivo developed "MacRetina," a simulated experiment to record from retinal ganglion cells, and he is the author of a deep website with procedures and videos for an undergraduate neurophysiology laboratory course. He was named "Educator of the Year" in 2005 by Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. Email: rolivo@fas.harvard.edu.

 

Ron Hoy, Cornell University

David and Dorothy Merksamer Professor in Biology at Cornell University, Ithaca NY. Developer (with Bruce Johnson, Bob Wyttenbach, and Pat Rivlin) of "Crawdad" and "FruitFly" software (Sinauer Publishers). Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, one of a select group of "leading research scientists who also are deeply committed to making science more engaging for undergraduates. Their innovative approaches to teaching are infusing undergraduate science with the excitement and rigor of scientific research." Email: rrh3@cornell.edu.

 

2009 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Teaching Neuroscience with Case Studies

Teaching Neuroscience with Case Studies

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS   |   LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter

Monday, October 19, 2009       |       9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon       |       McCormick Place S106

Case studies can enliven a lecture course or be the entire basis for a discussion-based course. In this workshop, we'll demonstrate how to teach a case, give tips on what works well, and hear from three faculty members who use cases to teach at different levels: Jeanette Norden (Vanderbilt), basic medical neuroscience; Bill Meil (IUP), undergraduate courses; Kurt Illig (Virginia), graduate courses. Each speaker will present his or her goals for teaching a course using cases, several of the specific cases they use, an overview of their full set of cases, and their observations and useful tips about teaching with case studies. We'll end with one-minute contributions from the audience, and breakout groups.

The workshop is open to graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at every level of teaching experience. There is no fee or preregistration.

 
 

 

Bill Meil discusses his use
of case studies in courses
during the 2009 Professional
Development Workshop on
Teaching Neuroscience.

 

 
 

SCHEDULE:

 

9:00

Demonstration of teaching a case and general tips on teaching with cases

Richard Olivo                                                    PREVIEW THE CASE           TIPS & RESOURCES

 

9:45

Teaching basic neuroscience to medical students with cases

Jeanette Norden

 

10:15

Using cases in undergraduate courses

William Meil

 

10:45

Using cases in a graduate course

Kurt Illig

 

11:15

"One minute" contributions from the audience

Bring your ideas!

 

11:30

Breakout groups

Informal conversations among faculty teaching similar courses.

 

The workshop's handout is available as a PDF file.

 
 

PANELISTS:

 
 

Richard Olivo (Smith College and Harvard University, workshop organizer)

Professor of Biological Sciences and member of the Program in Neuroscience, Smith College; from 1996-2009, Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. Dr. Olivo proposed the first neuroscience teaching workshop in 2005, and has organized workshops at each Annual Meeting since then. He is the developer of "MacRetina," and the author of a deep website for an undergraduate neurophysiology laboratory course. He was named "Educator of the Year" in 2005 by Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. Email: rolivo@email.smith.edu.

 
 

Jeanette Norden (Vanderbilt University)

Professor and Director of Medical Education in in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, and Professor of Neurosciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Norden has received a number of teaching awards, including the Shovel Award, given by the graduating class to the faculty member who has had the most positive influence on them in their four years of medical school, the Jack Davies Award for teaching excellence in the basic sciences, the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, and the Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Association of American Medical Colleges. She was the first recipient of both the Teaching Excellence Award given by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the University Chair of Teaching Excellence at Vanderbilt. Email: jeanette.norden@vanderbilt.edu.

 
 

William M. Meil (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Associate Professor of Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana PA. His interests include changes in frontal lobe function during recovery from drug addiction, the neural basis of drug abuse and addiction, substance abuse and treatment in rural areas, and influences on peoples' attributions regarding the causes of addictive behavior and disease. Dr Meil is the author of The Use of Case Studies in Teaching Undergraduate Neuroscience in the spring 2007 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education. Email: meil@iup.edu.

 
 

Kurt R. Illig (University of St. Thomas and University of Virginia)

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Neuroscience Program, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul MN; formerly Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Dr. Illig's research focuses on understanding how sensory information is associated with behavioral significance in cortical structures, and how these representations change with experience. Email: krillig@gmail.com.

 

2010 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - Undergraduate Curricula and Graduate Expectations

Undergraduate Curricula and Graduate Expectations

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS   |   workshop handout (pdf)  | LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

 

Monday, November 15, 2010       |       9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.       |       Location: SDCC Room 4

This year's teaching workshop focuses on the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum and its match (or mismatch) with the expectations of graduate admissions committees. We will survey representative undergraduate programs, see detailed examples of the curriculum for two college programs (one that evolved from a psychology track and one centered in biology), and hear the expectations of three graduate admissions committees that seek prior strength in cellular and molecular biology, cognitive and systems neuroscience, or quantitative and physical sciences. The workshop will conclude with a general discussion and breakout groups.

The workshop is open to graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at every level of teaching experience. There is no fee or preregistration.

 

 

 

SCHEDULE:

 

9:00

Survey of undergraduate curricula

    Richard Olivo     SLIDES     DATA TABLE

9:20

Examples of psychology- and biology-based college programs

    Eric Wiertelak     SLIDES

    Karen Parfitt     SLIDES

10:00

Expectations of graduate programs

    Scott Brady     SLIDES

    Steven Mennerick     SLIDES

    Michale Fee     SLIDES

11:00

Discussion and breakout groups

    General discussion followed by informal conversations.

 

 

PANELISTS:

 
 

Richard Olivo (Smith College, workshop organizer)

Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Smith College; from 1996-2009, Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. Email: rolivo@smith.edu.

 
 

Eric Wiertelak (Macalester College)

DeWitt Wallace Professor of Psychology and Director of Cognitive & Neuroscience Studies, and former President of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. Email: wiertelak@macalester.edu.

 
 

Karen Parfitt (Pomona College)

Associate Professor of Biology and former President of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.
Email: karen.parfitt@pomona.edu

 
 

Scott Brady (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Professor and Head, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and member of the SfN Committee on Neuroscience Departments and Programs. Email: stbrady@uic.edu

 
 

Steven Mennerick (Washington University School of Medicine)

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and former Chair, Neurosciences PhD Admissions Committee.
Email: menneris@wustl.edu

 
 

Michale Fee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Professor of Neuroscience and graduate admissions leader for systems-related faculty, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Email: fee@mit.edu

 
 

We thank Bruce Johnson (Cornell University) for his invaluable help in organizing this session.

 

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2011 Teaching Neuroscience Workshop at SFN - A Preview of ERIN, Educational Resources in Neuroscience

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON TEACHING NEUROSCIENCE

A Preview of ERIN, Educational Resources in Neuroscience

SCHEDULE   |   PANELISTS  |   HANDOUT  | LINKS TO PREVIOUS TEACHING WORKSHOPS

 
 

Monday, November 14, 2011       |       9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.       |       Location: 146C

This year's teaching workshop will preview ERIN, the Society's new website to support higher education. ERIN, "Educational Resources in Neuroscience," is now under development with public release expected in March 2012. The site will allow neuroscientists to recommend resources that they use in their courses, and to review and rate resources that they and others have recommended. A versatile search screen will help find materials based on general topic, specific keywords, type of resource, educational level, average rating, and other descriptors. All listed resources will have been approved for quality and given descriptions and keywords by ERIN's board of topic editors.

In this workshop, the editors will present highlights of resources they have identified in each topic area, and discuss why they believe those resources will enhance students' learning. The workshop will conclude with breakout groups for faculty interested in each of the topic areas.

The workshop is open to faculty, postdocs, and students at every level of teaching experience. There is no fee or preregistration.
 

 
 

 

SCHEDULE:

9:00

An overview of ERIN's goals and features

    Richard Olivo    

10:00

Sensory and motor systems

    Monica Linden    

9:15

Development and neuroanatomy

    Bill Grisham    

10:15

Homeostatic and neuroendocrine systems

    Jan Thornton    

9:30

Cellular neuroscience

    Bob Rosenberg    

10:30

Cognition and behavior

    Laura Symonds    

9:45

Neural disorders

    Joe Burdo    

10:45

Cognition and computational neuroscience

    Bob Calin-Jageman    

 

11:00

Postlude + Breakout groups
 

 

 

ERIN editors meeting at Pomona College, July 2011. L-R: Olivo, Calin-Jageman, Linden, Symonds, Rosenberg, Thornton, Grisham, Burdo.

 

PANELISTS:

 
 

Richard Olivo (Project Director, ERIN)
Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Smith College; formerly, Associate Director, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.
Email: rolivo@smith.edu.

 
 

William (Bill) Grisham
Adjunct Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Email: dr.billgrisham@gmail.com

 
 

Bob Rosenberg
Professor of Biology, Earlham College; formerly, Professor of Pharmacology and Cell & Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Email: rosenbo@earlham.edu

 
 

Joe Burdo
Assistant Professor of Biology, Boston College
Email: joseph.burdo@bc.edu

 
 

Monica Linden
Lecturer in Neuroscience, Brown University
Email: monica_linden@brown.edu

 
 

Janice (Jan) Thornton
Professor of Neuroscience and Biology, Oberlin College
Email: jan.thornton@oberlin.edu

 
 

Laura Symonds
Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience and Assistant Professor, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University
Email: symonds@msu.edu

 
 

Bob Calin-Jageman
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Dominican University
Email: rcalinjageman@dom.edu

LINKS:

 

Society for Neuroscience   |   2011 Professional Development Workshop on Teaching Neuroscience

A PREVIEW OF ERIN, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN NEUROSCIENCE:
Highlights selected by ERIN's Editors

Richard Olivo (OVERVIEW OF ERIN)

Higher Education and the Society for Neuroscience (http://www.funjournal.org/downloads/200981/olivo81.pdf)

Bill Grisham (DEVELOPMENT AND NEUROANATOMY):

MDCUNE (http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/)
Mouse Brain Library (http://www.mbl.org/)
GeneNetwork's WebQTL (http://webqtl.org/webqtl/main.py)
UCSC Genome browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu/)
Allen Brain Atlas (http://www.brain-map.org/)
Image J (http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/)

Bob Rosenberg (CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE):

Simulations:
GHK calculator (http://www.nernstgoldman.physiology.arizona.edu/)
Action potential simulation (http://nerve.bsd.uchicago.edu/nerve1.html)
Animations:
Anatomy of a neuron (http://www.khanacademy.org/video/anatomy-of-a-neuron?playlist=Biology)
Voltage clamp (http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/voltage_clamp.html)
Electrical signaling (http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/neuroscience/Neuron_Activity/01-vid.html)
Courseware (syllabi, assignments, exams, etc):
Cellular Neurobiology (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/brain-and-cognitive-sciences/9-09j-cellular-neurobiology-spring-2005/)
Lab exercise:
Resting membrane potentials (http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/NeuroSci/courses/bio330/labs/L3rp.html)

Joe Burdo (NEURAL DISORDERS):

Wikipedia Neuroscience Stub Editing Assignment for the Undergraduate Neuroscience Classroom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NeuroJoe/BI481_Fall_2011)
Brain Science Podcast (http://www.brainsciencepodcast.com/)
Neuroscience Online, the Free Neuroscience Electronic Textbook (http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/)
USC Online Multimedia Teaching Tool (http://omtt.usc.edu/)
Ubiquitous Presenter Software (http://up.ucsd.edu/)

Monica Linden (SENSORY AND MOTOR SYSTEMS):

HHMI Cochlea Video (http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/neuroscience/cochlea.html)
Neuroscience Animations from John Krantz, Hanover College (http://psych.hanover.edu/javaTest/NeuroAnim/index.html)
The Checker Shadow Illusion Video (http://youtu.be/z9Sen1HTu5o)
Virtual Barber Shop (http://youtu.be/IUDTlvagjJA)
Mighty Optical Illusions website (http://www.moillusions.com/)
Link to buy miracle berry tablets + JUNE article on conducting taste illusions in the classroom: (http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/wacky-edibles/ab3f/?pfm=Search&t=miracle%20berry%20tablets + (http://www.funjournal.org/downloads/Schroeder.pdf)
Motor Units in the Crayfish Nerve Cord Lab: (http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/NeuroSci/courses/bio330/labs/L7cns.html)

Jan Thornton (HOMEOSTATIC AND NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEMS):

Resources for lecture/discussion classes:
News articles: Biological Psychology Newslink (Breedlove et al.) (http://www.biopsychology.com/news/)
Website on environmental estrogens (Tulane) (http://e.hormone.tulane.edu/)
Jokes and pictures: (http://frankandernest.com/cgi/view/display.pl?93-05-01)
(http://frankandernest.com/cgi/view/display.pl?103-04-24)   (http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/worksofart/index.html)
Resources for laboratory courses:
Measuring salivary cortisol in humans (http://www.funjournal.org/downloads/KalmanA41.pdf)
Measuring a sexually dimorphic nucleus in the spinal cord in rats: the role of perinatal androgen exposure:
(http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/modules/ratscia/ratscia-extras/Grisham_Article_RatSCIA_2003.pdf)
(http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/modules/ratscia)

Laura Symonds (COGNITION AND BEHAVIOR):

Whole Brain Atlas (http://www.neuropsychologycentral.com/interface/content/links/page_material/imaging/imaging_links.html)
MRI Tutorials (http://www.mri-tutorial.com/)
Genes to Cognition (G2C) (http://www.g2conline.org/html/using_g2c_online.html)
TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor, "Stroke of Insight" (http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html)

Bob Calin-Jageman (COGNITION AND COMPUTATIONAL):

Neurons In Action 2: (http://neuronsinaction.com/home/main)
Swimmy: (http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/modules/swimmy)
Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior (http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/gluck1e/default.as)
MarioAI: (http://www.marioai.org/home)
INCF Competitions: (http://www.incf.org/community/competitions)
Animat Lab: (http://www.animatlab.com/)

Postlude (HUMOR):

Bad Project: (http://youtu.be/Fl4L4M8m4d0)