Controlling the Brain: Scientific, Therapeutic, and Ethical Implications of New Neurotechnologies
This course was an elective 200-level Biology / Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences course for non-majors at the University of Washington, Bothell.
Course designed and taught by Dr.s Lylah Deady, Ali Weber, and Anzela Niraula with mentorship from Dr. Becca Price and the UW STEP-WISE Program.
Content on this page includes examples from this course:
1. Course Syllabus
2. A lesson plan
3. An in-class worksheet with submitted responses
4. A homework assignment with submitted responses
5. The Final Project Assignment and a submitted poster
6. Midterm Student Evaluations and resultant course modifications
7. Final Student Evaluations
8. Mentor and Peer Evaluation
Course Syllabus
Example Lesson
Reflections:
This PowerPoint was from our second lesson of the course.
Things that students liked:
1. The one-minute write1 at the beginning of class was helpful in getting students to recall what we talked about during our previous lesson
2. Reviewing challenging homework questions by using direct responses from students’ work
3. Collaborating during the Gallery Walk2 exercise
4. Working together in small groups to digest figures and information from a scientific article3. This was a modification of a Figure Facts4 style activity. For more details, see the Example In Class Worksheet in the section below.
Things to improve for future classes:
1. The responses the students provided to the gallery walk were not what I expected, likely due to my instruction. Therefore, for future gallery walks, I will emphasize instructions with the intention to be more creative, high-level thinking.
2. Especially in classes with non-majors, I learned to have – what my mentor Becca Price referred to as – “pocket questions”. While working through the questions about the long-term study about DBS, the students worked at very different rates. Some groups finished quickly whereas others worked at a slower pace. To give myself time to help those students working at a slower pace, I would keep a list of thought-provoking questions to pose to students who finished their work to discuss among themselves. This would allow me to be available to students who were still working.
references:
1. Stead, D. R., (2005) A review of the one-minute paper. Active Learning in Higher Education. Vol 6(2): 118-131
2. https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/index.html
3. Hitti et al., (2020) Long-term outcomes following deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease. Journal of Neurosurgery, 132:205-210
4. Round and Campbell (2017). Figure Facts: Encouraging Undergraduates to Take a Data-Centered Approach to Reading Primary Literature. CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 12, 39–46, Spring 2013
Final Project Assignment and sample student posters
The foundation of this course was built upon ensuring an equitable and educational experience for all students, regardless of their scientific background. We reasoned that, because the final project assignment would be more challenging for some (e.g. our Public Policy majors) than others (our Biology majors), we would assign weekly assignments to act as checkpoints for the final project. This was a good venue for us to give frequent feedback to the students and ensure they were on a path to success.
Final Project Progression throughout the quarter for “Student 1”
Assignment 1: research a neuropathology its symptoms
Assignment 2: find existing and outdated treatments, and treatments-in-development
Assignment 3: brainstorm new treatments
Assignment 4: formulate a hypothesis to test your new treatment
Assignment 5: design an experiment to test your hypothesis
Assignment 6: develop ethical arguments for/against your treatment
Assignment 7: draft
Example Final Project Submissions
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Midterm Student Evaluations
Things that students thought were going well as of the mid-term:
1. The format of the class
-the worksheets and engagement
-specifically the “high-flex” style of class to give a virtual option for those who were unable to attend in person
-instructors are responsive
2. Homework Assignments
-homework assignments are thoughtful and helpful in learning the material
-homework directly relates to in-class material
Things that students thought needed improvement as of the mid-term:
1. Some students want feedback on homework assignments
2. It is sometimes unclear when to pay attention to discussion, group work, or in-class worksheet.
Instructor modifications in response to student evaluations
1. We used class time to show students how to find their homework feedback on Canvas.
2. Explicitly give students a few minutes to finish their worksheet sections before moving on to the next activity
Link to IASystem summary of evaluations (16 of 19 students responded)
note: Rebecca Price is the instructor of record. She was our mentor during the STEP-WISE program.
Final Student Evaluations
Informal evaluations:
After we celebrated the students achievements during the poster session on their last day of class, we prompted students with a reflection question:
What is your biggest takeaway from this course?
OR
What did you learn the most from this course?
Formal Evaluations:
A few of my favorite comments from the formal evaluations:
In response to the prompt: What aspects of this class contributed most to your learning?
“I really liked how the class is open for all majors. It gave me a chance to work with other types of students. The instructors cared about my success and supported me when I was having a hard time. They made me feel like I belonged in that classroom.“
In response to the prompt: Was this class intellectually stimulating? Did it stretch your thinking? Why or why not?
“It was harder than anticipated but rewarding too. This absolutely stretched my thinking because of the final project and all the different subjects this class covered. I would recommend it to friends.“
Link to IASystem summary of evaluations (13 of 18 students responded)
note: Rebecca Price is the instructor of record. She was our mentor during the STEP-WISE program.
Mentor and Peer Lesson Observation
Each class was evaluated by the co-instructors and our faculty mentor, Becca Pierce. Having a scientific-teaching expert like observe and critique our classes was a monumentally helpful experience. This procedure tremendously helped evaluate 1.) What I did well for that class; and 2.) What I can improve for the next class.
Examples notes and observations from one class
mentor’s overall reflection of my lessons
Lylah Deady, Ph.D. 