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

Details
Assignment Title	Environmental Influences on Brain and Behavior
Delivery Format	In-person
High Impact Practices (HIPs) Categories (Review definitions for each category)	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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