“Do Octopuses Have a Brain?” Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes towards Neuroscience at School

Abstract

The present study contributes to the question of school literacy about the brain, with an original survey conducted on Italian students from the 3rd to 10th grades (n = 508). The main goal was to test student's knowledge, attitudes, and interests about neuroscience, to assess needs, prospects, and difficulties in teaching about the brain from elementary to high school. A written questionnaire, maintaining anonymity, asked 12 close-ended multiple choice questions on topics related to human and animal brains, plus one facultative open-ended question about interests and curiosities on brain topics. The results show that respondents have a fragmentary level of basic knowledge about the brain, with aspects related to brain functions and consciousness the most challenging. As expected, degrees of performance improve with school level; elementary school students answered correctly an average number of 5.3 questions, middle school 6.5, and high school 7.4. Overall, students show great interest in the brain, as shown by the large number of questions gathered through the open-ended question (n = 384). Other topics are addressed, mostly related to brain structure/functions and the role of the brain in the everyday life. The survey indicates the need of more thorough school programs on this subject, reinforced by interdisciplinary teaching where comparative anatomy and evolutionary aspects of brain development are covered.

A pilot study of a neuroscience-based, harm minimisation programme in schools and youth centres in Australia

“…Young people rate three-dimensional brain graphics as more credible than two-dimensional brain graphics and text, which reflects the authority real-life visuals command in the perceived truth of health messages 34 35. Young people’s interest in the brain and the inherent relatability of neuroscience may also create a non-judgemental context to engage a wide audience in an otherwise stigmatising field 36–38. Neuroscience is arguably central in understanding the short-term and long-term impacts of AOD and promotes awareness of the progression of harm occurring when use transitions from single-time or ‘recreational’ use to habitual use 39.…”

Neurorobotics Workshop for High School Students Promotes Competence and Confidence in Computational Neuroscience

“…Insights from neuroscience are also facilitating rapid progress in artificial intelligence (Hassabis et al, 2017;Zador, 2019). Nevertheless, most students receive almost no education in neuroscience and the public's understanding of the brain is lacking (Frantz et al, 2009;Labriole, 2010;Fulop and Tanner, 2012;Sperduti et al, 2012;Dekker and Jolles, 2015). The reasons cited are that the brain is perceived to be too complex, and that the tools needed to study it are too expensive and hard to use.…”

“…(2) The process of designing, testing and modifying neurorobot brains with interesting behavioral and psychological capacities engages students in active learning, which has been shown to improve STEM outcomes (Freeman et al, 2014), especially among disadvantaged students (Kanter and Konstantopoulos, 2010;Haak et al, 2011;Cervantes et al, 2015). (3) Finally, neurorobotics combines robotics and active learning with neuroscience, a highly multidisciplinary subject that presents itself in a wide array of real-life situations and readily appeals to the public (Frazzetto and Anker, 2009;Sperduti et al, 2012). The aim of neurorobotics is convincing robotic embodiment of attention, emotion, decision-making and many other mental capacities that are inherently interesting to students.…”

Short Neurorobotics Workshop for High School Students Promotes Competence and Confidence in Computational Neuroscience

“…Insights from neuroscience are also facilitating rapid progress in artificial intelligence (Hassabis et al, 2017;Zador, 2019). Nevertheless, most students receive almost no education in neuroscience and the public's understanding of the brain is lacking (Dekker & Jolles, 2015;Fulop & Tanner, 2012;Sperduti et. al., 2012;Labriole 2010;Frantz et al, 2009).…”

“…(2) The process of designing, testing and modifying neurorobot brains with interesting behavioral and psychological capacities engages students in active learning, which has been shown to improve STEM outcomes (Freeman et al, 2014), especially among disadvantaged students (Cervantes et al, 2015;Haak et al, 2011;Kanter & Konstantopoulos, 2010). (3) Finally, neurorobotics combines robotics and active learning with neuroscience, a highly multidisciplinary subject that presents itself in a wide array of real-life situations and readily appeals to the public (Sperduti et al, 2012;Frazzetto & Anker, 2009). The aim of neurorobotics is convincing robotic embodiment of attention, emotion, decision-making and many other mental capacities that are inherently interesting to students.…”