Neuroscience

Program Description

The scientific community has been and continues to be fascinated by the prospect of unlocking the intricacies of the brain. Explorations in neuroscience often lead to questions about a human’s personality, emotions, senses, diseases, or even the ability to develop artificial intelligence. There are currently many more questions than answers in this area. Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field that has its foundation within psychology and biology, but incorporates concepts across many disciplines such as art, music, philosophy, chemistry, physics, and math to explore how our most complex organ, the brain, works.

The Neuroscience program will provide students with a foundation in Neuroscience that will allow her to formulate questions and interpret current findings about the brain. The minor in Neuroscience is a chance for students to explore the field by integrating coursework and laboratory experiments across different disciplines.

Study Abroad

Saint Mary’s has a long history of providing quality international programs as an essential part of our educational mission—forming women leaders who will make a difference in the world. As this world becomes increasingly interdependent, the College offers an expanding range of semester, year, semester break, and summer study and service programs in a wide variety of countries, and encourages students to take advantage of them. Learn more about the various Study Abroad opportunities.

Programs

Department Chair

Don Paetkau, Program Coordinator
278 Science Hall
574-284-4684

Faculty

T. Aubele-Futch, J. Rowsell

Student Learning Outcomes

Neuroscience majors will be able to:

demonstrate familiarity with core concepts in neuroscience.
demonstrate in depth understanding of cellular/systems of neuroscience and behavioral/cognitive areas of neuroscience.
demonstrate conceptual understanding and procedural knowledge of techniques commonly used in neuroscience, while working cooperatively.
demonstrate an understanding of scientific methodology and experimental design. knows how to find relevant scientific literature. understands what constitutes good evidence in neuroscience. Able to read and interpret primary scientific articles.
communicate scientific data to peers and instructor.
integrate and apply the core concepts of neuroscience to other related disciplines.

Neuroscience Courses

NEUR 185 First-Year Seminar: I like brains (1)

The purpose of this course will be to provide you with a survey of concepts, principles, and theories of neuroscience, to introduce you to the breadth of the field as well as to the ways in which neuroscience can be ‘connected’ with many other fields of study. It is thus designed to help you understand this inherently interdisciplinary field. During the course of the semester we will discuss some of the sub-disciplines within neuroscience (e.g. molecular, cellular, cognitive, and behavioral points of view), research in neuroscience happening on-campus, how neuroscience relates to other disciplines (such as biology, physics, psychology, and the arts). We will also discuss the major as a whole, including course requirements, opportunities available outside of the classroom, and the different trajectories that you might pursue within the major.

NEUR 485 Neuroscience-Senior Research (4)

This course is designed specifically for Neuroscience majors of senior standing to complete their individual senior comprehensive project. Students will have an opportunity to design, run, and analyze a research project under direct supervision of a faculty member. Students will read and analyze literature pertinent to their project and present their work in written and oral formats. Prerequisite: NEUR 385.

2019-2020 Catalog