the first course that will be described is a non - majors course called sex , gender , and the brain ( sgb ) .
this course combines three hours of class and three hours of lab per week , for fourteen weeks .
it is cross - listed between biology and women s studies , and typically fills with a variety of majors .
the course begins by broadening the students understanding of sex and gender through the discussion of complex non - human mating systems ( roughgarden , 2004 ; zuk , 2003 ) .
then , after an introduction to neurons and the brain , the course addresses topics such as the spectrum of physiological variation along the male - female continuum , focusing on the anatomy and physiology of the male and female brain , and the interaction of environment and social status with the brain ( hines , 2004 ) . throughout the course , students grapple with the primary literature and become conversant with experimental design , basic statistics , and hypothesis testing ( mead , 2009 ) . despite being beginners at science ,
they bring analytical skills developed in other courses to bear on this new and challenging material .
typically , the associated lab includes  wet lab  observations and experiments based on the brain , physiology , and gender ( see mead   for some examples ) . in the spring 2010 version of the course ,
the last six weeks of lab was replaced with a sl component involving brain outreach to second graders .
this sl unit consisted of a cluster of learning activities ( crafts and games ) relating to the brain and to sensory physiology .
we spent two weeks preparing and practicing the activities , and then divided into groups of four and visited six second grade classrooms in newark , ohio each week for a total of twenty - four classroom interactions ( see mead   for more details ) .
the learning goals for the college students during the sl outreach were 1 ) to develop their knowledge about the brain , and 2 ) to theorize and to test hypotheses about gender - based responses to different types of learning activities .
for instance , we read studies suggesting that boys and girls prefer different types of toys , with boys gravitating to balls , blocks , bikes , trucks , cars , weapons , and male figurines , and girls gravitating towards board games , puzzles , crayons , and dolls ( berenbaum and hines , 1992 , hines , 2004 , berenbaum et al . , 2008 ) .
theory suggested that boys would spend more time on rough and tumble games ( fabes et al .
, 2003 ; hines , 2004 ) , although some deviation from these patterns was acknowledged ( sandberg et al . , 1993 ) , with many factors influencing the gender - specificity of play ( hines , 2004 ; mchale et al . , 2004 ; mchale et al . , 2005 )
given these studies , we hypothesized that girls would be more engaged than boys with the brain puzzle , that the sensory activities ( mystery socks , jelly beans , mystery noises ) would be gender neutral , and that the running around and competitive activities ( message transmission , neuron chain tag ) would be more engaging for boys than for girls .
we collected data for our hypothesis testing by monitoring student engagement multiple times over each of the activities and by comparing the engagement of boys and girls .
students were considered engaged when they watched the denison students leading the activity , followed directions , interacted with peers when instructed ( as in the tag and message games ) , and worked independently as assigned ( as in the brain puzzle , see fig .
students were considered unengaged when they were not looking at the students leading the activities , were talking out of turn , had their head down on their desk , or were otherwise not following directions .
briefly , we found that girls were indeed more engaged in the brain puzzle , but were also more engaged in some of the sensory physiology activities ( which we had expected would be gender neutral ) , and the competitive and running around games were gender neutral , rather than biased towards the boys .
more details on our methodology and our results are given in mead ( 2010 ) .
most denison students ( 78% ) thought that the experience of teaching about the brain enhanced their understanding of the content material , because they had to simplify it , explain it , and answer questions .
furthermore , students successfully made the connection between articles read in class and the behaviors of the second graders .
the students who did not feel that service learning helped them directly with course content acknowledged that they learned more about learning styles , but typically did nt make the connection to the underlying theory .
87% of students said that they had developed a greater sense of themselves as agents of change , 91% of students said that the experience gave them more tools for solving community problems , and all agreed that it was important to engage in the community .
the other neuroscience course with a service - learning module is , by contrast , a course required for neuroscience concentrators called introduction to neuroscience ( neur 200 ) .
the course meets for three hours per week of lecture / discussion , with an additional three - hour per week laboratory .
historically , the course enrolls students at the sophomore and junior levels who plan to pursue the neuroscience concentration , complementing a major in either biology , psychology , or ( more infrequently ) , biochemistry .
students are required to have completed courses in introductory psychology and introduction to the science of biology prior to enrolling in neuroscience 200 . in the spring of 2011 , a service - learning requirement ( termed a cip , for community involvement project ) was piloted in the course .
two of the weekly labs were dedicated to the cip project , but the rest of the cip project took place outside of class time , either in group meetings with the course instructor , or on site visits by the students .
early in the semester , students were provided with an overview of the semester long projects , and were given the opportunity to designate their  top choices  for the available projects .
working with the alford center for service learning on campus , four possible off - campus sites were deemed to both meet neur 200 learning goals while having needs that could be met by the students : students worked in small groups ( typically , four students per group ) on their cip projects , which were as follows : four students worked with the yes clubhouse , an afterschool program in newark , to develop a presentation to teens about alcohol and recreational ritalin s effects on the brain . they used a jeopardy quiz - show format , with candy prizes , in addition to spending time with the teens and creating brochures that provided information about how ritalin works in the brain , the general physiological effects of stimulants like ritalin , and the potential effects of ritalin abuse .
they found that the yes clubhouse teens had very little factually correct information about ritalin and about recreational drugs in general .
a second group of students worked to collect the most recent information about sports concussions , and created a presentation for local high school coaches about short - term and long - term brain responses following concussion .
these focused on the importance of sleep , now thought to aid in recovery , and on the value of baseline monitoring . after a number of scheduling problems , the coaches were receptive , and felt validated regarding their current use of the impact test , a computerized cognitive assessment used by athletic trainers to collect baseline data of the athletes mental performance prior to any injury .
a third group of students worked with the chapel grove retirement facility to create a resource guide about keeping the aging brain healthy .
the students worked with the staff to develop materials in support of a four - pronged approach .
the four main tenets were : 1 ) a healthy and nutritious lifestyle including anti - oxidants , omega-3 fatty acids and a balanced diet ( singh et al .
, 2011 ) , 2 ) the role of physical exercise in supporting favorable changes in neuronal structure including dentritic spines , the dentate gyrus , the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex ( stranahan et al . , 2007 ) , 3 ) cognitive exercise , which is thought to reduce the risk of alzheimer s disease ( friedland et al . ,
2001 ) , and 4 ) psychological well - being , including social support , religious involvement and personal meaning ( fry , 2000 ) .
in addition to the presentation and resource guide , the students created multiple copies of an interactive book containing mental exercises that residents could practice ( see fig .
the final group of students worked with the newark health care center to create a presentation for family and medical caregivers of alzheimer s patients about the potentially dangerous stress - related effects of care giving , role of support , etc .
the information shared included the immunoprotective role of social support ( bodnar and kiecolt - glaser , 1994 ) , the importance of becoming informed about alzheimer s care and institutional support and the resultant reduction of stress , the role of exercise in combating oxidative stress and thus psychological distress , and the positive effects of artistic and sporting outlets ( miyazaki et al . , 2001 ) .
students worked on their projects in phases throughout the semester , guided by pre - determined deadlines established at the beginning of the semester . during the month of february ,
they met with the course instructor as often as needed for feedback and guidance , prior to the site visit . during the month of march
, students completed their on - site visits ( one on - site visit per group ) , and began the creation of an informative brochure based on their projects to be distributed at a local health fair .
students in neuroscience 200 participated in denison s  big red s big day ,  a community outreach event ( fig .
3 ) , and attended the licking county health fair in early april , where they interacted with health fair visitors from the community , talked with community members about their topics , and distributed their created brochures .
finally , students presented their projects as a power point to peers and to members of the neuroscience faculty on the last laboratory meeting day of the semester ( early may ) .
students were asked to provide responses to three questions generated by the office of service learning at denison : 1 ) did your service to the community in this course enhance your learning of the class s subject matter ?
2 ) as a consequence of your community service in this class , did you increase your awareness of social , economic , or political issues that face our community ?
if so , what are those issues ? can you give a summary sense of what you learned about this issue ?
3 ) what possibilities are there for the beneficial application from this course to address problems in the licking county community ?
i was proud of the mere idea that i would be completing a service project as part of my college neuroscience course . 
 the cip projects were an excellent opportunity to apply neuroscience outside of the classroom .
it also made me prioritize and remember that these are the people that my future research in neuroscience could help . 
 this neuroscience project taught me that is not just my job to be a critical consumer of information , but it is also my responsibility to distribute this information to the community .
  the cip was one of the most rewarding semester long projects i have been a part of at denison .  
i met people in our class that i normally would not have gotten a chance to work with 
..i felt proud that we contributed to the everyday lives of the chapel grove residents .   at the beginning of the semester , i will admit that i was slightly skeptical as to the educational value of a cip in a neuroscience class .
however , i now agree that community service can be an invaluable tool to promote active learning in any academic department . 
 having the opportunity to participate in the cip has been an uplifting , rewarding , and educational experience . 
the sl projects counted for 1520% of the final grades in both courses . for the sex , gender , and the brain course , the 15% was broken down into 3% for their presentation of proposed activities , 4% for four weeks of journal entries about the process , 5% for leadership and participation during the outreach events , and 3% for answers to essay questions relating neurophysiological theories to their observations and analyzing the data on the final .
the neur 200 students were assessed on their attendance and participation in group meetings with the course instructor , their work with other group members on the two laboratory days dedicated to the project design and to their oral presentation at the end of the semester , and on peer evaluations from other group members .
peers evaluated fellow group members on overall attendance and participation at all group meetings , on their contribution to the project ( research , brochure creation , and on their overall  team effort  ) .
ideally , the sl projects should also be assessed in terms of how they facilitated progress toward learning goals and in terms of outcomes for the community partners . as described above
, most students reported that the sl experience advanced their learning goals . in future iterations
assessing the effects of our sl projects on the community requires more thought . some of the populations that we worked with were protected populations , with the result that direct surveys of increases in knowledge might take more planning before they are approved by our human subjects review board .
for example , working out questions that would both accurately assess increases in brain knowledge or interest in second graders and be answerable in five minutes will be challenging . however , the creation of pre- and post surveys at the licking county health fair is more tractable , and should be done in the next iteration of cips in neur 200 .
furthermore , even if we ca nt parse out the effects of each community visit , we might be able to consider the role of multiple interventions as the campus - community relationships continue . as multiple denison groups visit the yes clubhouse or the elementary and middle schools , we could ask if rates of recreational drug use decrease and graduation rates increase .
while the service learning experience resonated with both male and female students , the link to community service may have struck a deeper chord in female students , especially in the non - majors course . despite denison s campus being fairly evenly male and female ,
76% of the students in the sgb class were female , possibly suggesting that more females than males were attracted to this type of class .
the preponderance of female students in these service - learning classes is supported by an unpublished survey documenting volunteering in 2009 at denison ( fisher , unpublished ) .
nearly twice as many female students as male students participated in service learning classes in 2009 ( 206 vs. 113 ) , and the women who participated gave more than 1.5 times more hours to their service learning projects than the men gave to theirs ( 19.8 vs 12.6 hours ) .
when activities outside of the classroom are included , 78% of females versus 69% of males participated in some philanthropic activity in 2009 , and female students spent nearly 2.5 times more hours volunteering than males did ( 28.2 hours vs. 11.4 hours ) . looking beyond our campus ,
this type of gender difference in altruistic behaviors is supported in some areas ( andreoni and vesterlund , 2001 ; themudo , 2009 ; trudeau and devlin , 1996 ) , but not universally ( wilson , 2000 ) .
. this could be partly because many of our female students already have experience with service learning or other forms of volunteering , so that the service learning portion of the laboratory experience seems comfortable and familiar , even if the topic is new and challenging .
furthermore , the service learning model of introductory biology allows students the opportunity to engage in problem - solving outside of the classroom . according to yang ( 2010 ) , college women who are not science majors are more likely to want to engage in science problem - solving outside of the classroom rather than within the classroom . also , college women who are not science majors are apt to see science as only moderately or hardly relevant to life , rather than highly relevant to life ( yang , 2010 ) .
service learning experiences are likely to give the scientific content a more meaningful and relevant context for these students ( bhattacharyya , 2009 ; george and brenner , 2010 ; reynolds and ahearn - dodson 2010 ) . while service learning can play an important role in many types of neuroscience courses , different goals and pressures surface in courses for non - majors versus courses for neuroscience concentrators or majors .
required courses for majors or concentrators tend to contain more content pressure than courses for neuroscience majors .
this can be dealt with via judicious choice of community partner , or by planning the service learning activities outside of class or lab time .
this latter solution can make group meetings difficult , and can lead to over - scheduling , but may be a good way to initiate small - scale sl projects into a neuroscience program .
all students are likely to experience the service learning component as an important preview of real - world neuroscience . for majors ,
this experience may lead to the identification of future topics for graduate school . for non - majors , the preview is more in the nature of a case study for how science is done , and how neuroscience in general can relate to social issues . in both groups , service learning can help the students form connections among their classes , whether within the science division or among all divisions . working out the logistics may be difficult and time - consuming .
however , sl gives introductory students an opportunity to see neuroscience in action , and links class material to the real world .
if serving a diverse student population is part of the mission of your institution , sl can be a potent tool for motivating and retaining students .
sl benefits the community by providing access to important information . linking universities to their communities is especially critical for both partners in a poor economy . in addition
, sl gives students opportunity for self - reflection . as a consequence of their sl experiences , nearly all of the students realized the importance of education , were more aware of their position of privilege , and realized the importance of working in the community .
students also remarked upon the benefits of peer interaction , both within their sl team or group , and with their community partners . while there are many benefits to engaging in sl activities , there are also some distinct challenges . for most faculty members ,
it is easier to support meaningful sl activities in small classes of 25 students or fewer .
while it is possible to engage in sl activities independently , it is much easier , less time - consuming , and more likely to lead to long - term , sustainable benefits for all parties when institutional support is present .
ideally , this support consists of a service learning center , administrative awareness that sl is a valuable activity , and a budget .
some sl models require additional time outside of class ; this poses a potential burden on already busy students .
if sl occurs within the class - time framework , this may take time away from other potential neuroscience class activities .
lastly , it is important for all participants to remember that academics and community members often operate on different time - frames , needs , and budgets .
given these opportunities for benefits and the possibilities of challenges , we have developed several keys to success .
first and most important , make sure that you are addressing a real community need , and not imposing on community members or institutions that may already be stretched to the limit in terms of staffing and mission ( bowers - sipe , 2001 ; butin , 2006 ) .
this is where any campus or community service learning center can be invaluable in terms of connections , experience , and community assessment .
it is also essential to start early : even if a campus service learning center is available , it is best to start planning early in the semester prior to your anticipated sl launch , both to make sure that you and your community partner are on the same page and are prepared , and to be able to provide accurate course descriptions ahead of registration deadlines . without a service learning center , it may take 23 years to develop relationships with community partners before engaging in any type of meaningful exchange .
however , given the broader impact and outreach components required by many funding sources , there may be campus colleagues already engaged in this type of effort . finding ways to engage with partnerships already in existence both speeds up the planning process and can increase the robustness and longevity of the relationship .
it is also practical to start small , with a limited number of projects . in our current educational climate
, it is a good idea to plan for assessment of learning goals , and to consider assessment of service learning goals from the point of view of your community partner .
if possible , plan for collection and analysis of data ( publish in june ! ) .
once you have identified your project , it is important to get your colleagues and your students onboard .
if your community partner organization can spare the personnel , ask if someone can speak to your students about what they will be doing , and why their assistance is critical .
if no one is available , perhaps someone from the service learning center can speak more generally about the value of this endeavor .
often even really gifted students need extensive guidance about their role and their interaction with community .
especially students who have not participated in the workforce will need to know about professional behavior , including the importance of promptness , dress code , respect for all of the people with whom they interact , and appropriate thank - yous .
most students will need guidance about working with protected populations , such as minors or clients at health care centers , as well as site - specific regulations about photographs , survey instruments , activities , etc . despite these challenges ,
the benefits of sl cause these authors to remain convinced that sl courses add valuable experiences for both our non - major students and our neuroscience concentrators .
in fact , we think that the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience may lend itself particularly well to enriching sl opportunities .
we both plan to continue to offer sl experiences , and hope to refine our methodology as we learn more about this activity ourselves !
anyone interested in a copy of the brochures created by the neuroscience 200 students should contact susan kennedy .
additional resources can be found below : general information 
 http://www.compact.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/downloads/aag.pdf ( this is an excellent , annotated study of what is known about service learning and its effect on students and on the community)http://www.learnandserve.org/ ( a link to the national clearinghouse for service learning)http://www.service - learningpartnership.org / site / pageserver ( this site provides a network of over 10,000 individuals involved in service learning , including educators , parents and policy makers.)http://www.aee.org/ ( another site connecting educators to timely research findings and resources in service learning ) http://www.compact.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/downloads/aag.pdf ( this is an excellent , annotated study of what is known about service learning and its effect on students and on the community ) http://www.learnandserve.org/ ( a link to the national clearinghouse for service learning ) http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/site/pageserver ( this site provides a network of over 10,000 individuals involved in service learning , including educators , parents and policy makers . ) http://www.aee.org/ ( another site connecting educators to timely research findings and resources in service learning ) syllabi in sl 
 http://www.compact.org/syllabi/ ( access to hundreds of sample syllabi across disciplines for those wishing to incorporate service learning into their classes)http://www.servicelearning / org / instant_info / fact_sheets / the_facts / discipline/ ( access to sample syllabi in service learning courses , including syllabi from courses that include interdisciplinary perspectives ) http://www.compact.org/syllabi/ ( access to hundreds of sample syllabi across disciplines for those wishing to incorporate service learning into their classes ) http://www.servicelearning/org/instant_info/fact_sheets/the_facts/discipline/ ( access to sample syllabi in service learning courses , including syllabi from courses that include interdisciplinary perspectives ) working with a community 
 http://www.cbprcurriculum.info/ ( offers a model for working with members of the community in order to facilitate service learning)http://ctb.ku / org/ ( a detailed resource offering information on the skills necessary to effectively build community and create change ) http://www.cbprcurriculum.info/ ( offers a model for working with members of the community in order to facilitate service learning ) http://ctb.ku/org/ ( a detailed resource offering information on the skills necessary to effectively build community and create change )
 incorporating service learning ( sl ) components can be a very powerful way to engage students , add relevance , and develop community - building skills . 
 sl experiences can play important roles in neuroscience classes , although the roles can be different depending on the needs of the classes . in this paper , we will present two models of incorporating service learning into neuroscience courses . 
 the first model gives an example of using sl in a non - majors course , and the second model gives an example of using sl in a neuroscience class for neuroscience concentrators . after describing the two sets of experiences , we summarize the positive aspects and the challenges involved in creating sl components in neuroscience courses , develop some keys to success , and then provide a list of additional resources . 
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
GRADING AND ASSESSMENT
DISCUSSION