A Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshop
The 2014 FUN WORKSHOP
Undergraduate Neuroscience Education:
Challenges and Solutions in Creating and Sustaining Programs
Ithaca College
Ithaca, New York
August 1-3, 2014
Applying for the Workshop
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until: Monday July 14, 2014.
VISIT: http://www.ithaca.edu/eventservices/fw/ to register today!
Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience has sponsored six previous workshops focused on helping faculty
develop and sustain neuroscience programs at undergraduate colleges and universities. We are happy to
announce that a seventh workshop is planned for August 1 – 3, 2014 that will be held at Ithaca College,
Ithaca, New York.
Aims and Objectives
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To examine the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum as it continues to evolve, and help guide
efforts to create, assess and sustain neuroscience programs at schools as diverse as liberal arts
colleges and research universities.
To aid in preparing neuroscience faculty for leadership roles in departmental, institutional,
professional organizations or other settings.
To introduce faculty to innovative laboratory experiences that serve as the basis for the development
of both investigative/discovery-based and integrative interdisciplinary laboratory experiences.
To prepare faculty to develop competitive grant applications to support their educational and
research programs.
To discuss local and national efforts to build and strengthen neuroscience education at the
undergraduate level.
To prepare workshop participants to initiate and sustain reforms on their home campus.
To build on or help create regional networks for ongoing collaboration following the Workshop.
Program
Case studies, plenary presentations, small group sessions, a poster session and individual consultations will
address all dimensions of undergraduate neuroscience education, including determining what needs to be
taught, dissolving institutional and departmental barriers, building an institutional team committed to reform,
developing more appropriate spaces for teaching and learning, funding innovative efforts, Study abroad, and
community outreach. Sessions will be of interest to neuroscience faculty as well as department chairs,
deans, development officers, and others with responsibility for strengthening undergraduate programs,
particularly those that cross disciplinary boundaries in and with science and mathematics in general, and
neuroscience specifically.
Laboratory Experience and Invited Workshop Leaders
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Eric P. Wiertelak, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Psychology and Director, Neuroscience Studies–
Macalester College; Workshop Chairperson
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Jean Hardwick, Professor of Biology-Ithaca College; Workshop Co-Chairperson and Co-Host
Bruce Johnson, Senior Research Associate and Lecturer in Neurobiology and Behavior– Cornell
University; Workshop Co-Chairperson and Co-Host
Julio J. Ramirez, R. Stuart Dickson Professor of Psychology– Davidson College; Workshop CoChairperson
Veronica G. Martinez Acosta, Associate Professor of Biology-University of the Incarnate Word
Mary Ann Asson-Batres, Program Director, NSF/BIO/IOS Neural Systems Cluster-National
Science Foundation
Anette Birck, Director of Science and Health Programs-Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Graham Cousens, Associate Professor of Psychology and Chair, Neuroscience Program– Drew
University
Gary Dunbar, Professor and Chair of Psychology– Central Michigan University
William Grisham, Adjunct Professor of Psychology– University of California at Los Angeles
Stephen Hauptman, Laboratory Instructor– Bowdoin College
Kurt Illig, Assistant Professor of Biology- University of St. Thomas
Chris Korey, Associate Professor of Biology and Director, First Year Experience– College of
Charleston
Stephen Korn, Director, Office of Training, Career Development and Workplace Diversity, National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of HEalth
Barbara Lom, Professor and Chair of Biology– Davidson College
Hewlet G. McFarlane, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology- Kenyon College
Jacqueline K. Morris, Director, Neuroscience Program- Baldwin-Wallace College
Gary Muir, Associate Professor of Psychology– St. Olaf College
Richard Olivo, Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience– Smith College
Michael Ruscio, Associate Professor of Psychology– College of Charleston
Josh Titlow, Department of Biology, University of Kentucky
Tamily Weissman-Unni, Assistant Professor of Biology, Lewis and Clark College
Joseph Whittaker, Professor of Biology and Associate Director, NASA GESTAR Program– Morgan
State University
Ian Woods, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology- Ithaca College
Robert Wyttenbach, Department of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology– Emory University
Hermes Yeh, Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology- Geisel School of
Medicine at Dartmouth College
The final schedule will be announced in the near future.
Examples of workshop session Themes planned include:
•Assessment for neuroscience education
•Developing effective interdisciplinary laboratory sessions
•Specific techniques in neuroscience laboratory instruction
•Specific techniques in neuroscience Classroom instruction
•Neuroscience curricula and program management
•Improving the mentorship of undergraduate neuroscience students
•Improving study abroad for undergraduate neuroscience students
•Recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in the neurosciences
•Grant-writing and support mechanisms for education and research in neuroscience
•Developing an Honor Society Chapter
•Writing for the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education
•Securing tenure at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution
And more!
New for the 2014 Workshop: Present your poster
All participants are welcomed to participate in the “What Works” Poster Session. Participants wishing
to present a poster detailing a particular curricular innovation, laboratory or classroom exercise in use at their
home institution should include the poster: Title, Authors and affiliation, and a brief 150-200 work abstract
with their application materials. Details for poster size and format will be sent to participants following receipt
of registration materials.
Satellite Pre-workshop Laboratory Seminar:
Returning for the 2014 FUN workshop, a special satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar, cohosted by Ithaca College and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, is planned
and available for up to 40 workshop attendees who would like to take their FUN workshop experience to the
next level. Intensive laboratory training sessions will be conducted starting Thursday morning, continuing
through Friday morning (July-31 and August 1), ending prior to the start of the FUN workshop.
Please note that space is very limited (only 40 spots available, first come, first served) for this
additional-cost event held prior to the workshop. Please indicate in your application materials whether any
members of your team would like to attend the pre-workshop Seminar.
Applying for the Workshop
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until: Monday July 14, 2014.
VISIT: http://www.ithaca.edu/eventservices/fw/ to register today!
Workshop Fees
Payments will be due within 2 weeks of your email receipt of invoice. The total workshop fee* is $495 per
person– which includes all meals (Friday dinner through Sunday lunch) lodging costs (2 nights, Friday and
Saturday, single occupancy dorm room accommodations) and workshop materials. Participants or their
institutions also pay the cost of travel. Off-campus lodging is available near Ithaca College for those wanting
to arrange their own housing (Registration without housing is adjusted to $400). *= does not include the
satellite preworkshop laboratory seminar-- see below.
NOTE: The Optional Intensive Satellite Pre-workshop Laboratory Seminar is Now SOLD OUT.
But MANY of the presenters from the pre-workshop seminar will be presenting sessions in
the Workshop as well.
•A limited number of partial scholarships are available to help defray the costs of attending the FUN
workshop for underrepresented minority faculty members, faculty from institutions serving women and
minority groups, and faculty from institutions currently unable to provide research and travel support. Please
contact Eric Wiertelak (see below) for further information about these partial scholarships.
Workshop Schedule Overview
The workshop will begin at 2:00 p.m., Friday, August 1 and will conclude at 12:00 p.m., Sunday, August 3,
2014.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact any of the members of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshop
Planning Committee!
Jean Hardwick, Host, at Ithaca College (phone: 607-274-3213; jhardwick@ithaca.edu)
Bruce Johnson, Co-Host, at Cornell University (phone: 607-254-4323 or 607-254-4351; brj1@cornell.edu)
Julio Ramirez at Davidson College (phone: 704-894-2888; juramirez@davidson.edu)
Eric Wiertelak, Committee Chair, at Macalester College (phone: 651-696-6111; wiertelak@macalester.edu)
About the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshops
At the Davidson College workshop in 1995, participants developed four blueprints to guide faculty in their
efforts to enrich the undergraduate science curriculum of their institutions by developing courses and
programs in an interdisciplinary and marvelously fertile young science: Neuroscience. Using these blueprints
as a foundation, participants at the Oberlin College workshop in 1998 and at the Trinity College workshop in
2001 explored cutting-edge laboratory exercises designed to serve as the basis for the development of
investigative, discovery-based laboratory experiences as well as simulations of synaptic transmission and
the steps involved in launching regional meetings emphasizing undergraduate neuroscience research. In the
2005 PKAL/FUN workshop at Macalester College, in addition to exploring new laboratory experiences and
development of leadership skills, the participants revisited the four original curricular blueprints that served
as curricular models in neuroscience since 1995, and, to address the directions that neuroscience is headed
in the coming decades, added a fifth curricular blueprint, neuroscience studies. In the 2008 FUN workshop,
participants explored new laboratory experiences emphasizing discovery-based learning and the increasing
interdisciplinarity of neuroscience education. In the 2011 FUN workshop, we moved to the west coast for the
first time, convening at Pomona College. At Pomona, we continued to examine new classroom and
laboratory exercises, and for the first time held a satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar that explored new
methodological directions in research-based teaching. We devoted time to the needs of growing programs,
confronting the issues that arise as classroom and laboratory technologies undergo rapid changes. We
actively explored approaches to mounting major and non-major courses in the undergraduate neuroscience
curriculum and ways to promote productive research environments for ourselves and our students.
At Ithaca College in 2014, our goals are no less daunting. The world of neuroscience education continues to
broaden, and with it, enrollment pressures are increasing across institutions, while budgets are constrained.
Alongside discussion and presentation of innovative classroom and laboratory exercises, in a wide range of
sessions, participants will explore issues focusing on both the profession and the curriculum, including
assessment of program effectiveness, incorporation of study abroad into student plans, and development of
faculty leadership skills to ensure the sustainability and resilience of our undergraduate education programs
in neuroscience for the future. We will also once again offer the satellite pre-workshop laboratory seminar to
explore new methodological directions in research-based teaching, which will be co-hosted by Ithaca College
and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, and feature activities at both sites.
Key Issues
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What has neuroscience become in the 23 years that FUN has championed the cause of
undergraduate education in neuroscience? What are we trying to accomplish today by introducing
neuroscience to undergraduates as part of a liberal arts experience? How can we best assess the
relative success of our efforts?
Given the range of undergraduate colleges and universities, what types of laboratory experiences
“work” in an undergraduate neuroscience setting? How are these changing with the introduction of
new technologies? How are enrollment pressures impacting on these experiences?
How can study abroad and other experiences be integrated more effectively in an undergraduate
neuroscience program?
What are leading models of neuroscience programs? What are the philosophical and logistical
obstacles in setting up a neuroscience program in a liberal arts college? In a state university?
What makes for a successful grant proposal? How does one get support for research, programs, or
equipment? What kinds of opportunities are available for faculty development?
How does one formulate a plan for leadership that stems from individual strengths, and is mindful of
career stage, institutional culture, and other commitments? What are the costs and benefits of
leadership roles?
Expectations
Participants will have pre-workshop assignments and are expected to come prepared to develop a plan for
follow-up activities for their campus and /or communities during the 2014 – 2015 academic year. As they are
selected, participants and teams will be asked to provide further information about their current situation,
goals, and plans for the future. Applicants will be notified regarding acceptance for participation shortly after
the receipt of all application materials. Payments (in full) are due within 2 weeks of your email receipt of
registration acceptance and invoice. Please see your invoice for details.