Neuroscience & the Liberal Arts small scale BIG IMPACT Neuroscience & the Liberal Arts Shelly Dickinson, Ph.D. 3.25.2011

Small schools = Small departments Scientific isolation Makes attending conferences extremely important BUT travel resources may be scarce May have one or two or three faculty representing entire field of neuroscience Students may not be exposed to diversity of field Level of sophistication in courses & lab experiences can suffer

Small schools = Small departments One faculty member on sabbatical or with lots of administrative duties can derail whole neuroscience curriculum Replacement hires may or may not fill gap Infrequent hires can mean stagnation in lab techniques Sabbaticals can help Pace of research can be (very) slow

Small schools = No true department Neuroscience programs staffed by psychology, biology, chemistry faculty with neuroscience research interests Needs of interdisciplinary programs get overlooked Tension with departmental responsibilities Whose budget? Who takes interdisciplinary majors? How is teaching credit allotted? Departmental budgets not large enough to cover research costs

True collaboration = Big impact Students working one on one in lab with faculty Summer research opportunities & independent research True investigative labs in classes Small classes = great experiential learning Team-teaching emphasizes interdisciplinary perspective, great learning for faculty as well!

Excellent students = Big impact Incredible enthusiasm from students Interested in everything, want to learn it all Liberal arts training teaches them to think critically For many students faculty are guides rather than fount of knowledge So teaching isn’t about lecturing on material as much as it is helping them learn to think and how to ask questions

Undergraduate challenges Need for disciplinary foundations, bio/chem/psych How MUCH background is necessary? Students may not “discover” neuroscience until junior year May not have bio/chem background They come to us as high school students, we help them become independent thinkers Just when they get really good in the lab, they graduate!

Millennial students Consumer of education Expect customer service & immediate access Very focused on “what will this get me”, high achievement Don’t start out learning for learning’s sake Developmentally not good with ambiguity, this is enhanced with millennials Accustomed to explicit directions, clear expectations

Millennial students Connected to parents Over-planned and scheduled Strong parental influence on course choice, need to justify Over-planned and scheduled Not great at time-management on their own Expect advanced technology