This Fall semester a new undergraduate neuroscience course will be offered for the first time. It is entitled How the Nervous System Works I, and is listed as BIO 4040-01. It will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:05-11:45AM. It is geared towards students generally interested in the nervous system, as well as pre-med students, and is designed to be taken by juniors and seniors.
This course was developed from the ground up by a group of neuroscience faculty members as an active learning course. There will not be heavy lecture, but students will learn about the topics in the course via engaging hands-on experiences. We will go deep into fundamental aspects of how the nervous system works. As such, it centers around the monosynaptic stretch reflex (AKA the tendon tap reflex, like when the doctor taps your knee, and the leg kicks out). From this simple reflex, comprised of a very basic circuit in the nervous system, students will understand neuronal membrane properties and how the neuron generates changes in current and voltage. Students will also understand how synaptic communication and information processing occurs between two neurons, and ultimately, how a simple stimulus, like the knee tap, can result in a behavioral response, the leg kicking out, via a couple of neurons.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience, there are a number of prerequisites currently listed for this course (related to math, biology, chemistry, and physics). Especially, during this first offering, we are willing to be more flexible on the prerequisites.
View the video featuring the neuroscience outreach effort of Christopher Wyatt and Patrick Sonner, faculty members from Wright State’s Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology, and Physiology.
For more information on this exciting new course contact Patrick Sonner (patrick.sonner@wright.edu; 937-775-3212; 105D White Hall).
