Modular digital courses at UCLA Great virtual experiments using open source software by William Grisham at UCLA. Requires sign up and verification to access "faculty" material. Includes modules on central pattern generators, bioinformatics, bird song systems and more. Tutorials are comprehensive and easy to understand although the software is not aesthetically pleasing or particularly user friendly. Essential for neuroscience pedagogy as a supplement or alternative to wet labs.
Brain Facts @ Washington University Aggregation of facts and figures about the brain, including sources. Useful for all the quick factoids about the brain that you read in the textbooks, but may have forgotten. Ctrl+F can be very useful for this site.
VALUE @ Amrita open access science education. Includes virtual simulators, labs, and tutorials for neuroscience, biochemistry, physics and more. Can get technical, but quite thorough if you are willing to put the time into it. Virtual patch clamp is interesting.
Neuroscience for kids! @ Washington University Not just for kids, extremely comprehensive resource and includes primary citations. Touches upon almost any topic relating to neuroscience you can think of. Includes many graphs, and images, that kids and even professionals can appreciate. Fun ideas for neuro type projects and puzzles. My favorite section so far, brain metaphors. "The brain is a spaceship, because it can orbit the whole world and travel to other worlds" A must use for quick reviews on any neuro topic and great educational projects for k-12.
Education and Research
The Allen Brain Atlas High throughput molecular biology techniques have made possible the mapping of gene expression across development in multiple species including rodent, human and non-human primates. Essentially the Human Genome Project for neuroscience. The ABA serially sections, stains, maps, provides 3d reconstructions, and quantifies gene expression for active scientific research and can be adapted for the classroom. An article for teaching can be found here. Students tend to respond well to the awareness that they are working with real data that working scientists actively produce and use, (and of course fluorescent colors + 3d images don't hurt the cause).
Brain Architecture Management system Neuroinformatics. Aggregating and compiling information on the neural 'connectome' i.e. the connectivity in the brain from the macro (brain regions) to the meso (neural types) to the micro (individual neurons). Like the ABA, used to actually figure out how the brain works. Quite sophisticated, and reading of the online manual is recommended to acclimate and understand the data presented.
About
This Wikispaces page contains resources for teaching and learning neuroscience. Below is a brief introduction followed by educational resource links. Using the Navigation bar to your right, or images below you can navigate this site to view key concepts of neuroscience for beginners, followed by the Special Topics section for more in depth readings from the primary literature. The Student project section will have short summaries of the special topics sections by members of the class.
Images below and links on the column right can be used to navigate this wiki.
Image sources:
Left: "Brainbow" in the Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus Livet et al, (2007)
Middle: Quadruple patch, layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons. Michael Häusser, University College London
Right: GFAP, Astrocyte. Nathan S. Ivey and Andrew G. MacLean
Educational Resources
Society for Neuroscience Educational Resource, overviews the "big ideas" from the field. For beginners.
Modular digital courses at UCLA Great virtual experiments using open source software by William Grisham at UCLA. Requires sign up and verification to access "faculty" material. Includes modules on central pattern generators, bioinformatics, bird song systems and more. Tutorials are comprehensive and easy to understand although the software is not aesthetically pleasing or particularly user friendly. Essential for neuroscience pedagogy as a supplement or alternative to wet labs.
Great Controversies in Neurobiology wikipage @ Brown University. Great idea for online project exercises for mid to upper level undergraduates, summarizes the controversies and provides links to primary resources.
Brain Facts @ Washington University Aggregation of facts and figures about the brain, including sources. Useful for all the quick factoids about the brain that you read in the textbooks, but may have forgotten. Ctrl+F can be very useful for this site.
VALUE @ Amrita open access science education. Includes virtual simulators, labs, and tutorials for neuroscience, biochemistry, physics and more. Can get technical, but quite thorough if you are willing to put the time into it. Virtual patch clamp is interesting.
Neuroscience for kids! @ Washington University Not just for kids, extremely comprehensive resource and includes primary citations. Touches upon almost any topic relating to neuroscience you can think of. Includes many graphs, and images, that kids and even professionals can appreciate. Fun ideas for neuro type projects and puzzles. My favorite section so far, brain metaphors. "The brain is a spaceship, because it can orbit the whole world and travel to other worlds" A must use for quick reviews on any neuro topic and great educational projects for k-12.Education and Research
The Allen Brain Atlas High throughput molecular biology techniques have made possible the mapping of gene expression across development in multiple species including rodent, human and non-human primates. Essentially the Human Genome Project for neuroscience. The ABA serially sections, stains, maps, provides 3d reconstructions, and quantifies gene expression for active scientific research and can be adapted for the classroom. An article for teaching can be found here. Students tend to respond well to the awareness that they are working with real data that working scientists actively produce and use, (and of course fluorescent colors + 3d images don't hurt the cause).
Brain Architecture Management system Neuroinformatics. Aggregating and compiling information on the neural 'connectome' i.e. the connectivity in the brain from the macro (brain regions) to the meso (neural types) to the micro (individual neurons). Like the ABA, used to actually figure out how the brain works. Quite sophisticated, and reading of the online manual is recommended to acclimate and understand the data presented.About
This Wikispaces page contains resources for teaching and learning neuroscience. Below is a brief introduction followed by educational resource links. Using the Navigation bar to your right, or images below you can navigate this site to view key concepts of neuroscience for beginners, followed by the Special Topics section for more in depth readings from the primary literature. The Student project section will have short summaries of the special topics sections by members of the class.Images below and links on the column right can be used to navigate this wiki.
Image sources:
Left: "Brainbow" in the Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus Livet et al, (2007)
Middle: Quadruple patch, layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons. Michael Häusser, University College London
Right: GFAP, Astrocyte. Nathan S. Ivey and Andrew G. MacLean