Environmental Influences on Brain and Behavior

In this assignment, students used journal articles to explore environmental effects on the brain and behavior, culminating in a brief presentation with a written/graphical piece or an extended teaching segment.

Author: Annaliese Beery, Associate Professor in Integrative Biology
Course Number & Title: IB 142L: Brain, Behavior, and Environment: a research approach
Grant Type: Berkeley Collegium Grant Program

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0(link is external)

 brain
Assignment Title Environmental Influences on Brain and Behavior
Delivery Format In-person

High Impact Practices (HIPs) Categories

(Review definitions for each category(link is external))
  • Undergraduate Research
  • ePortfolios & Multimedia Storytelling
Learning Objectives 

As a result of this project, students will be able to:

  • Self-assess knowledge gaps and personal motivations related to the various aspects of the course topics toward identifying a topic of interest
  • Synthesize key concepts from the semester through applied research investigations 
  • Investigate and research a topic of interest using published peer-reviewed research articles
  • Communicate scientific findings, relevance, and significance to a peer and/or near-peer audience
Brief Summary of Assignment This project allows students to explore other examples of environmental influences on the brain and behavior that interest them. Students use a minimum of two published journal articles (at least of one which must be a primary research article) to produce an in-class 10-15 minute presentation (with 5 minutes for questions), a written/graphical component, and a bibliography. The written component can either take the form of a popular science or blog post, graphical explanation, or skip the writing and teach the class for 30 minutes plus questions about the selected topic.
Assignment Length Students have approximately 6-10 weeks to complete the project depending on their presentation slot.
Assignment Details See handout. (Available to UC Berkeley only)

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