Quantitative assessments reveal improved neuroscience engagement and learning through outreach

Abstract

Lack of resources and exposure to neuroscience in K-12 education has resulted in a limited number of K-12 students pursuing higher education in the field. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of the field of neuroscience has encouraged many higher educational institutes to offer neuroscience majors. This has opened up the opportunity to engage faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students in bringing the most needed knowledge and awareness about neuroscience into K-12 classrooms.However, undergraduate neuroscience curricula have limited formal opportunities to engage in outreach, and few existing programs have assessments to determine their effectiveness. To address these needs, we developed quantitative assessment tools that complement an existing neuroscience outreach program-Project Brainstormat the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 29 UCLA undergraduates enrolled in the 2016 and 2017 programs participated in this study, along with 298 K-12 students from local schools across the Los Angeles area. In undergraduate students, we assessed (a) improvement in students' teaching/communication abilities across the course of the outreach program, and (b) confidence in explaining neuroscience topics and interest in pursuing teaching career. In K-12 students, we evaluated (a) knowledge gain in neuroscience topics and (b) interest in pursuing higher education.Overall, Project Brainstorm showed significant improvement in all the

Design and Evaluation of the Environmental Outreach Activity for Middle School Students

“…The outcomes of such activities are varied, with some reporting no effect on the attitude of students toward science, and others, like ours, reporting small and/or temporary effects. 29 , 64 Extra-curricular activities such as science camps typically report a greater positive effect on the attitude of students toward science. For instance, the polymer day program offered by UMN Discover STEM reported a positive influence with more than 90% of students agreeing that the week-long camp that included day-long events covering four different activities increased their interest in a degree or career in science or engineering.…”

“…Studies reported that females start to lose interest in science between the age of 10–13 with 6th grade students tending toward the beginning of this stage. 60 , 64 , 66 , 67 How far along this stage the students have progressed could explain the larger gender differences observed at J.E. Lanigan Elementary School compared to Bemidji Middle School and Central Middle School.…”

Open Practical Laboratories in the Neurosciences: An outreach program for neuroscience communication in middle schools

“…Perhaps more important than an effect related to neuroscientific knowledge and/or the dispersal of neuromyths is the more gen- Statistics χ 2 = 2.65, p = 0.1035 χ 2 = 0.179 p = 0.6723 χ 2 = 0.405, p = 0.5243 reported neuroscience outreach activities aimed toward middle and high school students in New England, and showed small changes in attitudes toward science. Saravanapandian et al (2019) also showed a positive and large effect on attitudes toward science after neuroscience outreach activities aimed toward K-12 students, with participants stating, for example, that they were much more likely to attend to college and/or pursue science as a future career. However, differently from the present study, Saravanapandian et al (2019) did not evaluate whether changes in attitudes were related to changes in knowledge.…”

An Undergraduate Student‐Led Neuroscience Outreach Program Shows Promise in Shifting Teen Attitudes About Drugs

“…During the second course module (Figure 1c and d), DOPA visits 5-8 classrooms in 3-4 high schools in the greater Los Angeles area, including private, public, and charter schools within the public Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) (Supporting File 3). Participating high schools are selected by proximity to campus and expressed interest in drug education from an updated list of schools that have regularly participated in UCLA outreach activities over the past decade (Saravanapandian et al, 2019).…”

“…Capitalizing on our experience running effective K-12 neuroscience outreach courses (Romero-Calderón et al, 2012;Saravanapandian et al, 2019), we created Drug Outreach, Promoting Awareness (DOPA). Founded in 2013 by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Brain Research Institute, in collaboration with the UCLA Undergraduate Interdepartmental Program for Neuroscience and the UCLA Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, DOPA provides scientifically accurate information about the health risks and public policy behind drugs.…”