Development of a Project-Oriented Neuroscience Laboratory

在开发科学课程的过程中，最大的挑战之一是开发既教授学生重要的科学概念，又培养批判性思维和假设检验技能的课程。霍普学院自然科学系的教职员工和管理人员相信“通过实践学习科学是最好的”。随着学院最近建立一个神经科学项目的承诺，我们的目标是建立一个研究型神经科学实验室，以促进学生对神经科学概念的理解，并支持培养批判性思维技能的学部重点。这个新实验室将继续建立在学生先前的研究性实验室经验的基础上，其中学生首先接受科学技术的培训（使用结构化的实验室练习），然后使用该技术根据他们自己的假设和实验设计完成一个长期项目。我们正在从目前在其他本科院校使用的两个免费的神经科学实验室项目中改编结构化实验室：1)Crawdad项目，目前被康奈尔大学和威廉姆斯学院等机构使用，向学生介绍包括电生理学在内的现代神经生理学技术。2) Wesleyan学院和肯特州立大学目前正在使用的《学习和记忆实验实验室手册》向学生展示了在组织层面上用于研究行为和学习的实验技术。学生在高级生理学和生物学入门课程中也会使用神经科学实验室所使用的资源。

Biological Sciences (61)One of the greatest challenges in the development of scientific curricula is to develop courses that teach students important scientific concepts while fostering critical thinking and hypothesis testing skills. The faculty and administration of the Natural Science Division at Hope College believe that "science is best learned by doing". With the recent commitment by the college to establish a neuroscience program, our objective is to develop a research-oriented neuroscience laboratory that will facilitate student understanding of neuroscience concepts and support the divisional emphasis of nurturing critical thinking skills. This new laboratory will continue to build on students' prior investigative laboratory experience, wherein students are first trained in a scientific technique (using structured lab exercises) and then use that technique to complete a long-term project based on their own hypothesis and experimental design. We are adapting the structured labs from two complimentary neuroscience lab programs currently being used at other undergraduate institutions: 1) The Crawdad Program, which is currently being used by institutions such as Cornell University and Williams College, introduces students to modern neurophysiology techniques including electrophysiology. 2) A Laboratory Manual of Leaning and Memory Experiments currently being used at Wesleyan College and Kent State University, presents students with experimental techniques used at the organismal level to study behavior and learning. The resources used in this neuroscience lab are also be utilized by students in the advanced physiology and introductory biology courses.