Biology subjects

Gage, G. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Gage, G. J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Building Brains for Robots: A Hands-On Approach to Learning Neuroscience in the Classroom

As the relevance of neuroscience in education grows, effective methods for teaching this complex subject in high school classrooms remain elusive. Integrating classroom experiments with brain-based robots offers a promising solution. This paper presents a structured curriculum designed around the use of camera-equipped mobile robots which enables students to construct and explore artificial neural networks. Through this hands-on approach, students engage directly with core concepts in neuroscience, learning to model spiking neural networks, decision-making processes in the basal ganglia, and principles of learning and memory. The curriculum not only makes challenging neuroscience concepts accessible and engaging but also demonstrates significant improvements in students understanding and self-efficacy. By detailing the curriculums development, implementation, and educational outcomes, this study outlines a scalable model for incorporating advanced scientific topics into secondary education, paving the way for a deeper student understanding of both theoretical neuroscience and its practical applications.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2022

Teacher Attitudes towards Research-Based Classroom Exercises and Intensive Virtual Summer Professional Development

A study based on a survey questionnaire was conducted with 55 teachers across multiple high schools in the United States to understand their perceptions about their attitudes and confidence towards using research-based classroom exercises, which models they use to develop such exercises and their availability and preferences for an intensive summer professional development course. Our preliminary results indicate that while teachers are comfortable teaching research-based classroom activities, they are none-the-less very interested in paid professional development courses on teaching research practices to students (79%), more than two-thirds (69%) would be willing to devote at least one hour a week during the school year and three-quarters (75%) would be willing to spend 2-3 hours a week or more during the summer.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2021

Teacher Perceptions of Using Robots to Teach Neuroscience in Secondary School

The use of robots to help teachers to engage students in STEM subjects has been increasing in recent years, and much progress has been made in K12 schools to incorporate robots in the pedagogy. Recent studies indicate that robots can play a significant role to engage students in neuroscience subjects, but little is known about teachers perceptions of using robots to teach neuroscience. In this paper, we present a study based on a survey questionnaire conducted with 84 teachers across multiple high schools in the United States to understand their perceptions about the usefulness of using robots to teach neuroscience. To situate teachers with an example of how robots can be used in neuroscience classrooms, we describe an educational tool called the SpikerBot. Our preliminary results indicate that there is an opportunity for neuroscience-oriented robots in secondary education, provided sufficient on-boarding and training videos.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

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

Understanding the brain is a fascinating challenge, captivating the scientific community and the public alike. The lack of effective treatment for most brain disorders makes the training of the next generation of neuroscientists, engineers and physicians a key concern. Over the past decade there has been a growing effort to introduce neuroscience in primary and secondary schools, however hands-on laboratories have been limited to anatomical or electrophysiological activities. Modern neuroscience research labs are increasingly using computational tools to model circuits of the brain to understand information processing. Here we introduce the use of neurorobots - robots controlled by computer models of biological brains - as an introduction to computational neuroscience in the K-12 classroom. Neurorobotics has enormous potential as an education technology because it combines multiple activities with clear educational benefits including neuroscience, active learning, and robotics. We describe an introductory neurorobot workshop that teaches high school students how to use neurorobots to investigate key concepts in neuroscience, including spiking neural networks, synaptic plasticity, and adaptive action selection. Our do-it-yourself (DIY) neurorobot uses wheels, a camera, a speaker, and a distance sensor to interact with its environment, and can be built from generic parts costing about $150 in under 4 hrs. Our Neurorobot App visualizes the neurorobot's visual input and brain activity in real-time, and enables students to design new brains and deliver dopamine-like reward signals to reinforce chosen behaviors. We have tested the Neurorobot Workshop with high school students (n = 3 workshops, 9 students total) and have found that students were able to complete all exercises in under 3 hrs. In a post-workshop survey, students reported having gained the ability to develop neural networks that perform specific functions, including goal-directed behavior and memory. Here we provide DIY hardware assembly instructions, discuss our open-source Neurorobot App and demonstrate how to teach the Neurorobot Workshop. By doing this we hope to accelerate research in educational neurorobotics and promote the use of neurorobots to teach computational neuroscience in high school.

scientific communication and education↗