Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 5, “Neurobiology of Learning and Memory” (7th-8th)
Our first topic in the morning was the scientific method. We asked, “What is science?” Many students showed impressively sophisticated understanding of science, not as specific disciplinary knowledge like physical laws, but as a way of obtaining and establishing knowledge by means of objective evaluations.
We then delved into some assumptions and methods of science. For example, science should be discoverable and assume that the world has regularities for us to discover. For discoverability, we looked at theories that can or cannot be proved. Our students did a very good job trying to come up with a hypothesis from a theory, such as how to know if monkeys understand fairness. They were thinking like scientists! We then watched a video about how scientists test if monkeys understand fairness. For the regularities of the world, we watched a video about the fascinating Fibonacci sequence and how it is almost everywhere in nature – a prime example of discoverable law in nature.
We continued to work on understanding the scientific method, and this time, we thought about when and how we can make causal claims, that is, “Does A cause B?” We discussed three conditions for causality: 1. Temporal precedence, 2. Covariation, 3. Alternative explanations. We looked at many cases together for a better understanding of these conditions. For instance, if Amy lost a lot of weight in the past few weeks, and she is beginning a new, healthier diet today, we can’t say that the new diet “caused” the weight loss, because it didn’t happen before the weight loss. Then, each of our four groups of students worked on cases where people claim that “A causes B” and evaluated whether those causal claims are warranted.
After lunch, we began our exciting final project presentations! The final project invited students to choose a topic that interests them, which is relevant to neurobiology or psychology. Students were asked to share what the topic was about and why they were interested in the topic. They were invited to find a few online courses/university professors/experts to help them better understand the topic and point out current challenges in research on the topic.
The topics presented by our students included: anxiety, theory of mind, obsessive-compulsive disorder, stuttering, dysgraphia, hypothalamus, Piaget’s cognitive development theories, schizophrenia, neurogenesis, seizure, optical illusions, adverse childhood experiences, and Parkinson’s disease. The class asked very interesting questions and made constructive comments after each of the presentations. It was a great week of learning!