A Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshop

The 2017 FUN WORKSHOP is 100 days away!

Undergraduate Neuroscience Education:

Activities, Laboratories andBest Practices for Developing, Assessing and Sustaining Inclusive Curricula

Dominican University

River Forest, Illinois

July 28-30, 2017

Applying for the Workshop

Space is filling up! Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis

until fully enrolled or Monday July 24, 2017.

Follow the link at Funfaculty.org to register today!

Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience has sponsored seven previous workshops focused on helping faculty develop and sustain neuroscience programs at undergraduate colleges and universities. We are happy to announce that anEighth workshop is planned for July28-30, 2017 that will be held at Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois.

Aims and Objectives

  • To examine the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum as it continues to evolve, and help guide efforts to create, assess and sustain inclusive neuroscience programs at schools as diverse as liberal arts colleges and research universities.
  • To aid in preparing neuroscience faculty for leadership roles in departmental, institutional, professional organizations or other settings.
  • To introduce faculty to innovative laboratory experiences that serve as the basis for the development of both investigative/discovery-based and integrative interdisciplinary laboratory experiences.
  • To prepare faculty to develop competitive grant applications to support their educational and research programs.
  • To discuss local and national efforts to build and strengthen neuroscience education at the undergraduate level.
  • To prepare workshop participants to initiate and sustain reforms on their home campus.
  • To build on or help create regional networks for ongoing collaboration following the Workshop.

Program

Case studies, plenary presentations, small group sessions, a poster session and individual consultations will address all dimensions of undergraduate neuroscience education, including determining what needs to be taught, dissolving institutional and departmental barriers, building an institutional team committed to reform, developing more appropriate spaces for teaching and learning, funding innovative efforts, Fostering diversity in the sciences, Study abroad, and community outreach. Sessions will be of interest to neuroscience faculty as well as department chairs, deans, development officers, and others with responsibility for strengthening undergraduate programs, particularly those that cross disciplinary boundaries in and with science and mathematics in general, and neuroscience specifically.

Laboratory Experience and Invited Workshop Leaders

  • Eric P. Wiertelak, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Psychology and Director, Neuroscience Studies– Macalester College; Workshop Chairperson
  • Irina Calin-Jageman, Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience—Dominican University, Workshop Co-Chairperson and Co-Host
  • Robert Calin-Jageman, Associate Professor of Psychology and Discipline Director of Neuroscience—Dominican University, Workshop Co-Chairperson and Co-Host
  • Veronica G. Martinez Acosta, Associate Professor of Biology-University of the Incarnate Word; Workshop Co-Chairperson
  • Jean Hardwick, Professor of Biology-Ithaca College; Workshop Co-Chairperson
  • Bruce Johnson, Senior Research Associate and Lecturer in Neurobiology and Behavior– Cornell University; Workshop Co-Chairperson
  • Joe Burdo, Co-founder and Chief Educator, NeuroTinker LLC
  • Ellen Carpenter, Program Officer, National Science Foundation
  • Wes Colgan, Implementation Manager for Education, AD Instruments
  • Kevin Crisp, Associate Professor of Biology—St. Olaf College
  • Gary Dunbar, Professor and Chair of Psychology– Central Michigan University
  • Terri Gilbert, Application Scientist, Allen Institute for Brain Science
  • William Grisham, Adjunct Professor of Psychology– University of California at Los Angeles
  • Deborah Henken, Health Scientist Administrator, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health
  • Karen Hibbard, Research Specialist—Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Michael Kerchner, Associate Professor of Psychology and Executive Director of Nu Rho Psi—Washington College
  • Dorothy Kozlowski, Vincent de Paul Professor, Biological Sciences-- DePaul University
  • Ben Latimer, Computational Neurobiology Center—University of Missouri
  • Barbara Lom, Professor and Chair of Biology– Davidson College
  • Kelly Mack, Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director, Project Kaleidoscope, Association of American Colleges and Universities
  • Gary Muir, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director, Neuroscience Program– St. Olaf College
  • Satish Nair, Robert Buescher Professor of Bioengineering—University of Missouri
  • Karen Parfitt, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Pomona College
  • Marsha Penner, Lecturer and Director for Undergraduate Research in Psychology and Neuroscience—University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
  • Julio J. Ramirez, R. Stuart Dickson Professor of Psychology– Davidson College
  • A. David Redish, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Department of Neuroscience—University of Minnesota
  • Jacqueline Rose, Associate Professor of Psychology—Western Washington University
  • Laura Symonds,Undergraduate Director, Neuroscience Program—Michigan State University
  • Ilya Vilinsky, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences—University of Cincinnati
  • Charles Weaver, Associate Professor of Health Sciences—Saginaw Valley State University
  • Robert Wyttenbach, Department of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology– Emory University

We are currently finalizing the schedule—to be announced in the near future.

Examples of workshop session Themes planned include:

•Curricular Design for neuroscience education

•Assessment for neuroscience education

•Developing effective interdisciplinary laboratory sessions

•Specific techniques in neuroscience Classroom and laboratory instruction

•Neuroscience program management

•Improving the mentorship of undergraduate neuroscience students

•Improving study abroad for undergraduate neuroscience students

•Recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in the neurosciences

•Inclusive Pedagogy in neuroscience education

•Grant-writing and support mechanisms for education and research in neuroscience

•Developing an Honor Society Chapter

•Writing for the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education

•Securing tenure at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution

And more!

Returning for the 2017 Workshop: Present your poster

All participants are welcomed to participate in the “What Works” Poster Session. Participants wishing to present a poster detailing a particular curricular innovation, laboratory or classroom exercise in use at their home institution should include the poster: Title, Authors and affiliation, and a brief 150-200 work abstract with their application materials. Details for poster size and format will be sent to participants following receipt of registration materials.

Satellite Pre-workshop Laboratory Seminar:

Returning for the 2017 FUN workshop, the special satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar is now completely sold out.Many of the topics covered in detail in the pre-workshop will be presented on a limited basis in the full workshop!

Workshop Fees

Please visit the registration website for details!

•A limited number of partial scholarships are available to help defray the costs of attending the FUN workshop for underrepresented minority faculty members, faculty from institutions serving women and minority groups, and faculty from institutions currently unable to provide research and travel support. Please contact Eric Wiertelak (see below) for further information about these partial scholarships.

Workshop Schedule Overview

The workshop will begin at 2:00 p.m., Friday, July 28 and will conclude at 1:00 p.m., Sunday, July 30, 2017.

Questions?

Please feel free to contact any of the members of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshop Planning Committee!

Irina Calin-Jageman, Co-Host, at Dominican University (phone: 708-524-6596; )

Robert Calin-Jageman, Co-host, at Dominican University (phone: 708-524-6581; )

Veronica Martinez Acosta at University of the Incarnate Word (phone: 210-829-3149; )

Jean Hardwick at Ithaca College (phone: 607-274-3213; )

Bruce Johnson at Cornell University (phone: 607-254-4323 or 607-254-4351; )

Eric Wiertelak, Committee Chair, at Macalester College (phone: 651-696-6111; )

About the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshops

At the Davidson College workshop in 1995, participants developed four blueprints to guide faculty in their efforts to enrich the undergraduate science curriculum of their institutions by developing courses and programs in an interdisciplinary and marvelously fertile young science: Neuroscience. Using these blueprints as a foundation, participants at the Oberlin College workshop in 1998 and at the Trinity College workshop in 2001 explored cutting-edge laboratory exercises designed to serve as the basis for the development of investigative, discovery-based laboratory experiences as well as simulations of synaptic transmission and the steps involved in launching regional meetings emphasizing undergraduate neuroscience research. In the 2005 PKAL/FUN workshop at Macalester College, in addition to exploring new laboratory experiences and development of leadership skills, the participants revisited the four original curricular blueprints that served as curricular models in neuroscience since 1995, and, to address the directions that neuroscience is headed in the coming decades, added a fifth curricular blueprint, neuroscience studies. In the 2008 FUN workshop, participants explored new laboratory experiences emphasizing discovery-based learning and the increasing interdisciplinarity of neuroscience education. In the 2011 FUN workshop, we moved to the west coast for the first time, convening at Pomona College. At Pomona, we continued to examine new classroom and laboratory exercises, and for the first time held a satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar that explored new methodological directions in research-based teaching. We devoted time to the needs of growing programs, confronting the issues that arise as classroom and laboratory technologies undergo rapid changes. We actively explored approaches to mounting major and non-major courses in the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum and ways to promote productive research environments for ourselves and our students. At Ithaca College in 2014, we examined issues confronting neuroscience programs in a period of reduced funding and burgeoning enrollments.

In 2017, we stand at the crossroads: As the world of neuroscience education continues to broaden, and with it, enrollment pressures increase across institutions, what is the future of the curriculum? Alongside discussion and presentation of innovative classroom and laboratory exercises, in a wide range of sessions, participants will explore issues focusing on both the profession and the curriculum, including assessment of program effectiveness, incorporation of study abroad into student plans, and development of faculty leadership skills to ensure the sustainability and resilience of Inclusive undergraduate education programs in neuroscience for the future. Our satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar will explore new methodological directions in research-based teaching.

Key Issues

  • What has neuroscience become in the 26 years that FUN has championed the cause of undergraduate education in neuroscience? What are we trying to accomplish today by introducing neuroscience to undergraduates as part of a liberal arts experience? How can we best assess the relative success of our efforts?
  • Given the range of undergraduate colleges and universities, what types of classroom and laboratory experiences “work” in an undergraduate neuroscience setting? How are these changing with the introduction of new technologies? How are enrollment pressures impacting on these experiences?
  • How can study abroad and other experiences be integrated more effectively in an undergraduate neuroscience program?
  • What are leading models of neuroscience programs? What are the philosophical and logistical obstacles in setting up a neuroscience program in a liberal arts college? In a state university?
  • What makes for a successful grant proposal? How does one get support for research, programs, or equipment? What kinds of opportunities are available for faculty development?
  • How does one formulate a plan for leadership that stems from individual strengths, and is mindful of career stage, institutional culture, and other commitments? What are the costs and benefits of leadership roles?