NeurVision: Teaching neuroscience with neuroimaging data

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) application is to create supplemental educational materials that will fill a major void in the undergraduate neuroscience and behavioral science curriculum: A lack of educational tools that give students the opportunity to learn neuroscience by working hands-on with neuroimaging data. This Phase 1 project will evaluate the feasibility of creating multimedia CD-ROMs (student and teacher's versions), a teacher's manual, and a student workbook that will supplement curricula used in undergraduate psychology, biology, neuroscience, and other science courses. Entitled NeuroVisions: Teaching neuroscience with neuroimaging data, the materials will involve students in discovery-based explorations of addiction, memory, language, emotion, and consciousness with real data provided by leading neuroimaging scientists. Students will formulate hypotheses, design experiments, process and analyze brain imaging data, perform statistical analyses, draw conclusions based on their analyses, and write up findings in research reports. The project's emphasis on image manipulation and image analysis will afford a novel and accessible learning experience for today's visually oriented undergraduate students. The "hybrid" structure to be employed in NeuroVisions will include a learning and application module (LAM) and research and discovery module (RDM) in each lesson. This structure will help bridge students from the simple explorations of imaging data in the LAMS to in-depth, statistical research on complete data sets in the RDMs. The hybrid structure will thus increase the flexibility of the NeuroVisions materials. Instructors of survey courses who wish to introduce students to neuroimaging and key neuroscience concepts will use the; Instructors of research methods and other in-depth classes will add the RDMs. Six milestones will be accomplished during project: (1) finalize a table of contents for the NeuroVisions materials; (2) program new Java-based features for the instructional materials; (3) develop a prototype lesson for the full set of NeuroVisions materials; (4) field-test the prototype lesson at two undergraduate institutions; (5) develop a plan for field-testing the full set of Neurovisions materials at undergraduate institutions throughout the United States; and (6) create a commercialization plan for the lessons. Collaborating in the project is the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA; the Functional Imaging Laboratory at University College of London's Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience; WestEd Regional Educational Laboratory; the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona; and Davidson College in North Carolina.