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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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!

6. 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

7. 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!

8. 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

9. 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