title: Brain literate: making neuroscience accessible to a wider audience of undergraduates.
abstract: The ability to critically evaluate neuroscientific findings is a skill that is rapidly becoming important in non-science professions. As neuroscience research is increasingly being used in law, business, education, and politics, it becomes imperative to educate future leaders in all areas of society about the brain. Undergraduate general education courses are an ideal way to expose students to issues of critical importance, but non-science students may avoid taking a neuroscience course because of the perception that neuroscience is more challenging than other science courses. A recently developed general education cluster course at UCLA aims to make neuroscience more palatable to undergraduates by pairing neuroscientific concepts with philosophy and history, and by building a learning community that supports the development of core academic skills and intellectual growth over the course of a year. This study examined the extent to which the course was successful in delivering neuroscience education to a broader undergraduate community. The results indicate that a majority of students in the course mastered the basics of the discipline regardless of their major. Furthermore, 77% of the non-life science majors (approximately two-thirds of students in the course) indicated that they would not have taken an undergraduate neuroscience course if this one was not offered. The findings also demonstrate that the course helped students develop core academic skills and improved their ability to think critically about current events in neuroscience. Faculty reported that teaching the course was highly rewarding and did not require an inordinate amount of time.
authors.affiliation: UCLA Library Teaching and Learning Services, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Salomon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
authors.forename: Laurel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martin-Harris
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Odegaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
authors.forename: Aleksey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zvinyatskovskiy
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
authors.forename: Scott H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chandler
keywords: bioethics; critical thinking; general education; interdisciplinary; learning community; mental illness; neuroethics; neuroscience anxiety; neuroscience education; research skills; team teaching; writing skills
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