Neuroscience at an Undergraduate Women's College: Implementing Modern Methodologies at the Cellular, Systems, and Behavioral Levels

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This proposal seeks funds to facilitate implementation of exemplary neuroscience laboratory instructional sequences into the interdisciplinary neuroscience minor at a women's liberal arts college. The requested equipment will complement and expand the utility of recently acquired biological and biobehavioral instrumentation to support entirely new laboratory components in two core neuroscience courses, additional sequences of neuroscience laboratory exercises in three ancillary neuroscience courses, and diverse student research projects. The improved neuroscience minor will introduce students to the modem experimental techniques and methodologies of neuroscience and give them the practical laboratory experience and opportunities to prepare them for graduate work. This instrumentation proposal supports and integrates research-driven curricula in the psychology and biology departments and the model seminar-based and leamer-centered general education curriculum of Wesleyan College, which focuses on handson experiences and collaborative problem solving as practical and effective ways to learn.To realize the goals of exposing students to modem neuroscience instruction, instruments, and methods, and of providing advanced students with equipment to support sophisticated directed and selfdesigned neuroscience research projects, we are seeking funds for three categories of instrumentation: electrophysiological equipment for studying cellular and systems neurophysiology, stereotaxic, stimulating, and biobehavioral monitoring equipment for studying the neuronal control of behavior, and models for clarifying neuroanatornical relationships. The infusion of this equipment into our curriculum will greatly expand the range of modem neuroscience techniques available to biology and psychology students, foster interdisciplinary thinking and integrative research projects, and provide students with an improved conceptual understanding of, and a wealth of practical experience with the methods of modem neuroscience.