Introduction
Are you right-brained or left-brained? At one time it was thought that a person in whom the left cerebral hemisphere was dominant would be more logical and mathematically inclined. If a person was right-brain dominant, they would be talented at creative activities like art and music. Things are not that simple, but I am using this title for my unit on neurobiology to emphasize the idea that I want my students to learn about the nervous system by using a variety of activities where they can put their creativity to work, and by exploring how scientists are using scientific methodology to investigate the nervous system. This unit will incorporate historical research on the nervous system as well as cutting edge research being done using the latest imaging techniques. My hope is students will see that scientists must often find creative ways to explore areas of interest, such as the brain, that are difficult to access directly.
This unit is designed for a class of International Baccalaureate (IB) III Biology students, but would also be applicable for AP Biology students, or even a Psychology class. As one of the IB focused curriculum units, called options, each year I choose to cover Neurobiology and Behavior. This unit will span about three weeks, in which I meet with students every other day for ninety minutes. Just as it is difficult for scientists to get into the inner workings of the nervous system, it has been difficult for me to find good ways to bring the nervous system to life for my students. They can see the effects of nervous system action—reflexes and behavior—but since there aren't a lot of moving parts or easily distinguished pathways in a brain, they do not view the brain as particularly interesting. In developing this unit, I have included activities and labs that will add interest to the topic and help students see the relevance of the topic to their lives and maybe to their future careers.
IB students are also required to design and carry out their own investigations in biology, and yet, even though they are seniors, they always seem to have difficulty accounting for more than one or two variables, or designing an experiment that collects sufficient data. I believe that by exposing them to research methods being used by real scientists in the field, they will begin to see the importance of designing experiments with full consideration for conflicting variables, using proper controls, repeating trials and all other aspects that go into collecting meaningful data to test a hypothesis. As part of this unit, students will read about current research being done in neuroscience, then "dissect" and discuss the papers in terms of how the experiment was designed and how data was collected and analyzed. A behavior experiment will be replicated by the students after analysis of the original report. Having read, analyzed, discussed, and replicated various experiments they will then design and conduct their own experiments exploring some area of neurobiology or behavior, with the expectation that they will apply the lessons learned about experimental design.
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