Neuroscience Activities for Hands-on Learning

描述(申请人提供：本项目的目的是开发、实地测试、传播和评估创新实践活动的使用情况，这些活动侧重于神经科学的关键概念，并突出神经科学学会制定的神经科学核心概念：神经科学的基本原则中确定的四个“大概念”。这些引人入胜的活动将使高中生物教师能够轻松地将神经科学融入现有课程的各个领域。这些活动将由罗切斯特大学生命科学学习中心的课程开发专家团队与罗切斯特大学科学家科学家咨询委员会和高中生物教师教师咨询委员会合作创建。在这个为期五年的项目中，我们将：“开发一项关于神经元交流的入门活动和八项扩展活动，将神经科学概念和职业信息整合到高中生物课程的各个主题领域。”通过教师焦点小组和整个纽约州的学校实地测试来评估这些活动。实施一项为期三年的传播计划，在该计划中，我们将招聘、培训和支持纽约州和一个全国性的‘教师讲师’网络，他们将为纽约和美国各地的同行领导专业发展研讨会。制定和使用可靠、有效和单维度的前后评估，以衡量活动对学生对神经科学内容的理解以及对科学和医疗保健职业的认识的影响。这一拟议的项目意义重大，因为它将对高中教师利用实践活动让不同的学生群体参与了解神经科学的内容和现实世界的应用，以及提高学生对需要神经科学知识的各种职业的认识产生全国性的影响。这项拟议的项目具有创新性，因为将要开展的活动将使教师能够轻松地将神经科学概念整合到生物课程的各个领域，包括细胞生物学、分子生物学、遗传学、生态学、发育和进化等“非传统”主题领域。此外，我们在全国范围内传播计划的创新特点将增加教师采用这些新的神经科学教育资源的可能性，这将进一步扩大该项目对学生学习的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant: The purpose of this project is to develop, field test, disseminate and evaluate the use of innovative hands- on activities that focus on key concepts of neuroscience and highlight the four "mega-concepts" identified in the Neuroscience Core Concepts: Essential Principles of Neuroscience developed by the Society for Neuroscience. These engaging activities will enable high school biology teachers to easily integrate neuroscience into various areas of existing curriculums. The activities will be created by a team of curriculum development experts from the University of Rochester's Life Sciences Learning Center, in collaboration with a Scientist Advisory Council of University of Rochester scientists and a Teacher Advisory Council of high school biology teachers. During this five-year project we will: "Develop an introductory activity on neuron communication and eight extension activities that integrate neuroscience concepts and career information into various topic areas of the high school biology curriculum." Evaluate the activities through teacher focus groups and in-school field testing throughout New York State. "Implement a three-year dissemination plan in which we will recruit, train and support a New York State and a national network of "teacher-presenters" who will lead professional development workshops for their peers throughout New York and throughout the US." Develop and use a reliable, valid and unidimensional pre/post assessment to measure the impact that the activities have on students' understanding of neuroscience content, and awareness of science and health care careers. This proposed project is significant because it will have a national impact on high school teachers' use of hands-on activities to engage diverse student populations in understanding neuroscience content and real- world applications as well as increasing student awareness of a wide variety of careers that require knowledge of neuroscience. This proposed project is innovative because the activities to be developed will allow teachers to easily integrate neuroscience concepts into various areas of the biology curriculum, including "nontraditional" topic areas such as cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, ecology, development, and evolution. In addition, the innovative characteristics of our nationwide dissemination plan will increase the likelihood of teacher adoption of these new neuroscience education resources, which will further expand the impact of this project on student learning.