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Sketchpad Series 

A no-brainer! A general education neuroscience course for non-STEM undergraduates.

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Carole Scherling¹ (carole.scherling@belmont.edu); ¹Belmont University, Nashville, TN

Neuroscience is pop-culture prevalent and attracts public interest. However, general field understanding is lacking, so accessible education offerings should be considered and promoted. Twenty-six Belmont University predominantly non-STEM undergraduates (22F) enrolled in general neuroscience courses. Upon entry, 100% revealed feeling scared and most mentioned interest in the topic but worried about their capacity. The course first introduced biological machinery, with labs navigating microscope images, an online c-elegan dissection, a 3-D brain and excitatory/inhibitory neural-networks. Students examined dinosaur endocasts, emphasizing cross-species challenges. Later, students probed complex systems, through online engagement with a cocaine-dosed rat, as well as a series of activities demonstrating vision, audition and movement/sensation functions. Last, there were flipped classroom opportunities; notably one asking to create a 2-minute video on a personal neuroscience topic. Learning outcomes included examinations, laboratory submissions, active-learning questions and case-study analyses. Course average was 82.31% (SD 10.89, max 97.82, min 60). A final paper requested a reflection discussing current neuroscience knowledge and what this field means to them now. A thematic essay analysis revealed 10 themes, mostly centering around the transformation from initial anxiety to genuine engagement, and personal connections to course content. Consistently, students described feeling surprised about the field’s complexity and reported that hands-on laboratory experiences reinforced abstract concepts. Interdisciplinary applications were valued, emphasizing links between neuroscience and their own field-of-study. Overall, results reveal that when neuroscience education connects abstract concepts to personal/practical experiences, it can be transformative across disciplines. Neuroscience education is approachable and should not be limited to STEM students.

Topic Area: OTHER