Undergraduate Neurobiology Laboratory

这是一项为本科生神经生物学课程和涉及神经生物学技术的本科生独立研究提供设备的建议。实验课程每年将影响12名学生，至少还有2名学生能够使用这些设备进行独立研究。另外171名其他课程的学生也将受益于实验室练习或讲座演示中使用的设备。这门课程帮助填补了诺克斯维尔田纳西大学本科教育的一个重大空白，因为那里没有专门针对快速发展的神经科学领域的实验课程。拟议的课程将补充目前由PI和Co-PI教授的讲座课程，神经生物学基础（BCMB 415）。这门实验课程是一门为期一个学期的密集分析，内容是控制蜗牛进食行为的神经回路。在课程中，学生将接触到各种神经解剖学和电生理学技术，同时学习与神经生物学领域相关的基本原理。除了完成5个正式练习外，学生还将有机会进行自己的假设驱动实验。要求的书面报告和独立项目结果的口头报告将为学生在神经科学领域的进步提供必要的进一步培训。最后，实验练习将通过开发可通过万维网访问的神经生物学实验室页面以电子方式传播。

This is a proposal to provide equipment for an undergraduate neurobiology course and for undergraduate independent research involving neurobiology techniques. Each year the laboratory course will impact 12 students, with at least 2 more students able to use the equipment for independent research. An additional 171 students enrolled in other courses will also benefit through the equipment being used in laboratory exercises or lecture demonstrations. The course helps fill a significant gap in the undergraduate education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in that there are no laboratory courses devoted to the rapidly growing area of neuroscience. The proposed course will compliment the lecture course, Foundations in Neurobiology (BCMB 415), currently being taught by the PI and Co-PI. The proposed laboratory course is an intensive semester-long analysis of the neural circuitry controlling feeding behavior in the snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. During the course, students will be exposed to a variety of neuroanatomical and electrophysiological techniques while they learn basic principles associated with the field of neurobiology. In addition to completing 5 formal exercises, students will also be given the opportunity to conduct their own hypothesis-driven experiments. Required written reports and an oral presentation of the results of their independent project will provide students with further training necessary for advancing in the field of neuroscience. Finally, lab exercises will be disseminated electronically via the development of a neurobiology laboratory page accessible via the World Wide Web.