Integrating Community Outreach into the Undergraduate Neuroscience Classroom

While both federal agencies and professional associations emphasize the importance of neuroscience outreach, this goal seldom reaches the undergraduate neuroscience classroom. However, incorporating outreach into undergraduate neuroscience classes is an efficient means to reach not only future scientists, but also the future practitioners (K-12 teachers, social service workers, etc.) with whom neuroscientists hope to communicate. It also provides a vehicle for faculty members to engage in outreach activities that are typically un- or under-rewarded in faculty reviews. In this article, a Neuroscience Community Outreach Project (NCOP) is described. The project has been used in three offerings of a Cognitive Neuroscience course at a small liberal arts college, shared and applied at a large state university, and presented at a regional Society for Neuroscience meeting as an example of outreach opportunities for faculty. The NCOP assignment is a student-driven, modular activity that can be easily incorporated into existing neuroscience course frameworks. The assignment builds on student interests and connections in the community, providing a way for faculty at institutions without formal outreach programs to incorporate neuroscience outreach into the classroom and connect students to online resources. Several sample student projects are described across three broad domains (K-12 outreach, presentations to social service organizations, and media / popular press presentations). The article ends with a set of suggestions addressing common faculty concerns about incorporating community outreach into the undergraduate neuroscience classroom.