Neuroscience and Education Colleagues Collaborate to Design and Assess Effective Brain Outreach for Preschoolers.

Neuroscience outreach efforts are currently aimed at older elementary or high school children and have not traditionally assessed effectiveness. Additionally, programs are often initiated by either neuroscientists or educators alone, with few combined instances of these groups working together. Considering the wide range of benefits that accompany interdisciplinary collaborations for outreach, this study sought to develop a neuroscience curriculum for preschool students via collaborations between neuroscience and education departments. Six neuroscience lessons addressing various functions of the brain were taught to preschool students in consecutive weeks. The first lesson was given to the entire class, after which a baseline pre-assessment was performed. Students were then divided into groups, after which only half of the class received further neuroscience instruction. A post-assessment measured for increases in neuroscience knowledge in the students. Results showed that students who received the neuroscience lessons had a greater understanding of content-specific material compared to the group who did not receive neuroscience lessons. The undergraduates involved also reported great benefits from participation in this program. This work addresses the gap in interdisciplinary science programming targeting young elementary aged students, and also provides a framework for improved design and assessment of such programs to continue to better scientific outreach efforts.

Similar tests of anxiety-like behavior yield different results: comparison of the open field and free exploratory rodent procedures.

Pharmacological agents that treat anxiety disorders are often validated in animal models prior to clinical trials. Yet results suggest little consistency in rodent anxiety-like behavior across tests. The current study examined the relationship between anxiety-like behaviors of male rats in the open field test and free exploratory paradigm. Results indicate most anxiety-like behaviors between tests were not correlated and few correlations existed within tests, despite similarity in testing apparatus, procedures, and quantified behaviors. These results suggest even very similar tests may provide insight into different facets of anxiety and urge caution when translating animal results to the human condition.