The neuroscience of active learning and direct instruction.

Throughout the educational system, students experiencing active learning pedagogy perform better and fail less than those taught through direct instruction. Can this be ascribed to differences in learning from a neuroscientific perspective? This review examines mechanistic, neuroscientific evidence that might explain differences in cognitive engagement contributing to learning outcomes between these instructional approaches. In classrooms, direct instruction comprehensively describes academic content, while active learning provides structured opportunities for learners to explore, apply, and manipulate content.

Regional sex differences in neurochemical profiles of healthy mice measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 9.4 tesla.

Objective: To determine sex differences in the neurochemical concentrations measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H MRS) of healthy mice on a genetic background commonly used for neurodegenerative disease models.

Methods: H MRS data collected from wild type mice with C57BL/6 or related genetic backgrounds in seven prior studies were used in this retrospective analysis. To be included, data had to be collected at 9.

Food for thought: Eating before saliva collection and interference with SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Saliva is a promising specimen for the detection of viruses that cause upper respiratory infections including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to its cost-effectiveness and noninvasive collection. However, together with intrinsic enzymes and oral microbiota, children's unique dietary habits may introduce substances that interfere with diagnostic testing. To determine whether children's dietary choices impact SARS-CoV-2 molecular detection in saliva, we performed a diagnostic study that simulates testing of real-life specimens provided from healthy children (n = 5) who self-collected saliva at home before and at 0, 20, and 60 min after eating 20 foods they selected.

Connecting the Dots from Professional Development to Student Learning.

Following professional development (PD), implementation of contemporary topics into high school biology requires teachers to make critical decisions regarding integration of novel content into existing course scope and sequence. Often exciting topics, such as neuroscience, do not perfectly align with standards. Despite commitment to enacting what was learned in the PD, teachers must adapt novel content to their perceptions of good teaching, local context, prior knowledge of their students, and state and district expectations.

Neuroscience Concepts Changed Teachers' Views of Pedagogy and Students.

Advances in neuroscience reveal how individual brains change as learning occurs. Translating this neuroscience into practice has largely been unidirectional, from researchers to teachers. However, how teachers view and incorporate neuroscience ideas in their classroom practices remains relatively unexplored.

Acceptability of Neuroscientific Interventions in Education.

Researchers are increasingly applying neuroscience technologies that probe or manipulate the brain to improve educational outcomes. However, their use remains fraught with ethical controversies. Here, we investigate the acceptability of neuroscience applications to educational practice in two groups of young adults: those studying bioscience who will be driving future basic neuroscience research and technology transfer, and those studying education who will be choosing among neuroscience-derived applications for their students.

A crossed-disciplinary evaluation of parental perceptions surrounding pediatric non-invasive brain stimulation research.

Purpose –: Recruitment for pediatric non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) studies is often challenged by low enrollment. Understanding parental perceptions regarding NIBS is crucial to develop new communication strategies to increase enrollment.

Design/methodology/approach –: Integrating a crossed-disciplinary approach, the authors conducted a survey at the 2018 Minnesota State Fair querying the perception of risk and preferences of current and future parents associated with pediatric NIBS research.

Training-of-Trainers Neuroscience and Mental Health Teacher Education in Liberia Improves Self-Reported Support for Students.

Education programs have been central to reestablishing social norms, rebuilding public educational institutions, and addressing public attitudes toward mental illness in Liberia following a protracted civil war and the Ebola epidemic. The aim of this study was to determine if a program combining an understanding of neuroscience with mental health literacy content could increase teachers' awareness of students' mental health issues and produce changes in teacher attitudes and classroom practices. A tiered Training-of-Trainers approach was employed.

Tiered Neuroscience and Mental Health Professional Development in Liberia Improves Teacher Self-Efficacy, Self-Responsibility, and Motivation.

After acquiring knowledge of the neuroscience of learning, memory, stress and emotions, teachers incorporate more cognitive engagement and student-centered practices into their lessons. However, the role understanding neuroscience plays in teachers own affective and motivational competencies has not yet been investigated. The goal of this study was to investigate how learning neuroscience effected teachers' self-efficacy, beliefs in their ability to teach effectively, self-responsibility and other components of teacher motivation.

Learning Neuroscience with Technology: A Scaffolded, Active Learning Approach.

Mobile applications (apps) for learning technical scientific content are becoming increasingly popular in educational settings. Neuroscience is often considered complex and challenging for most students to understand conceptually. iNeuron is a recently developed iOS app that teaches basic neuroscience in the context of a series of scaffolded challenges to create neural circuits and increase understanding of nervous system structure and function.

Contributions of Neuroscience Knowledge to Teachers and Their Practice.

While neuroscience has elucidated the mechanisms underpinning learning and memory, accurate dissemination of this knowledge to teachers and educators has been limited. This review focuses on teacher professional development in neuroscience that harnessed the power of active-learning strategies and best educational practices resulting in increased teacher and student understanding of cognition and brain function. For teachers, the experience of learning a novel subject in an active manner enabled them to subsequently teach using similar strategies.

Towards an Understanding of Energy Impairment in Huntington's Disease Brain.

This review systematically examines the evidence for shifts in flux through energy generating biochemical pathways in Huntington's disease (HD) brains from humans and model systems. Compromise of the electron transport chain (ETC) appears not to be the primary or earliest metabolic change in HD pathogenesis. Rather, compromise of glucose uptake facilitates glucose flux through glycolysis and may possibly decrease flux through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), limiting subsequent NADPH and GSH production needed for antioxidant protection.

Consumptive Water Use Analysis of Upper Rio Grande Basin in Southern Colorado.

Water resource management and governance at the river basin scale is critical for the sustainable development of rural agrarian regions in the West. This research applies a consumptive water use analysis, inspired by the Water Footprint methodology, to the Upper Rio Grande Basin (RGB) in south central Colorado. The region is characterized by water stress, high dessert conditions, declining land health, and a depleting water table.

Oxygen consumption deficit in Huntington disease mouse brain under metabolic stress.

In vivo evidence for brain mitochondrial dysfunction in animal models of Huntington disease (HD) is scarce. We applied the novel O magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) technique on R6/2 mice to directly determine rates of oxygen consumption (CMRO) and assess mitochondrial function in vivo Basal respiration and maximal CMRO in the presence of the mitochondrial uncoupler dinitrophenol (DNP) were compared using 16.4 T in isoflurane anesthetized wild type (WT) and HD mice at 9 weeks.

Brivaracetam augments short-term depression and slows vesicle recycling.

Objective: Brivaracetam (BRV) decreases seizure activity in a number of epilepsy models and binds to the synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) with a higher affinity than the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam (LEV). Experiments were performed to determine if BRV acted similarly to LEV to induce or augment short-term depression (STD) under high-frequency neuronal stimulation and slow synaptic vesicle recycling.

Methods: Electrophysiologic field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) recordings were made from CA1 synapses in rat hippocampal slices loaded with BRV or LEV during intrinsic activity or with BRV actively loaded during hypertonic stimulation.

Seletracetam enhances short term depression in vitro.

Seletracetam (SEL), an analog of the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam (LEV), decreases seizure activity in a number of epilepsy models and binds to the synaptic vesicle protein SV2A with a higher affinity than LEV. Experiments were performed to determine if SEL, like LEV, reduces the later EPSPs in long trains of stimuli in a manner dependent upon access to the interior of synaptic vesicles and SV2A binding. When hippocampal slices were incubated in 3-30μM SEL for 3h, but not 30 min, the relative amplitude of the CA1 field excitatory synaptic potentials decreased over the course of a train of high frequency stimuli more than for control slices.

Active learning in a neuroethics course positively impacts moral judgment development in undergraduates.

The growing neuroscientific understanding of the biological basis of behaviors has profound social and ethical implications. To address the need for public awareness of the consequences of these advances, we developed an undergraduate neuroethics course, Neuroscience and Society, at the University of Minnesota. Course evolution, objectives, content, and impact are described here.

Neuroscientists' classroom visits positively impact student attitudes.

The primary recommendation of the 2010 President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report on K-12 education was to inspire more students so that they are motivated to study science. Scientists' visits to classrooms are intended to inspire learners and increase their interest in science, but verifications of this impact are largely qualitative. Our primary goal was to evaluate the impact of a longstanding Brain Awareness classroom visit program focused on increasing learners understanding of their own brains.

Non-invasive measurement of cerebral oxygen metabolism in the mouse brain by ultra-high field (17)O MR spectroscopy.

To assess cerebral energetics in transgenic mouse models of neurologic disease, a robust, efficient, and practical method for quantification of cerebral oxygen consumption is needed. (17)O magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been validated to measure cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) in the rat brain; however, mice present unique challenges because of their small size. We show that CMRO2 measurements with (17)O MRS in the mouse brain are highly reproducible using 16.

Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development.

Bruer (1997) advocated connecting neuroscience and education indirectly through the intermediate discipline of psychology. We argue for a parallel route: the neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of , have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to affect how students think about their own learning. We present a case study of how the core concepts of neuroscience can be brought to in-service teachers - the BrainU workshops.

Decreased expression of GLT-1 in the R6/2 model of Huntington's disease does not worsen disease progression.

Excitotoxicity is thought to be important in the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease (HD). Glutamate is the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, and excess activation of glutamate receptors can cause neuronal dysfunction and death. Glutamate transporters regulate the extracellular concentration of glutamate.

Teaching neuroscience to science teachers: facilitating the translation of inquiry-based teaching instruction to the classroom.

In science education, inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning provide a framework for students to building critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Teacher professional development has been an ongoing focus for promoting such educational reforms. However, despite a strong consensus regarding best practices for professional development, relatively little systematic research has documented classroom changes consequent to these experiences.

Homeostatic adaptations in brain energy metabolism in mouse models of Huntington disease.

Impairment of energy metabolism is a key feature of Huntington disease (HD). Recently, we reported longitudinal neurochemical changes in R6/2 mice measured by in-vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H MRS; Zacharoff et al, 2012). Here, we present similar (1)H MRS measurements at an early stage in the milder Q111 mouse model.

Cortical metabolites as biomarkers in the R6/2 model of Huntington's disease.

To improve the ability to move from preclinical trials in mouse models of Huntington's disease (HD) to clinical trials in humans, biomarkers are needed that can track similar aspects of disease progression across species. Brain metabolites, detectable by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), have been suggested as potential biomarkers in HD. In this study, the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of HD was used to investigate the relative sensitivity of the metabolite profiling and the brain volumetry to anticipate the disease progression.