Based on successful middle school outreach programs, this cross-disciplinary approach seeks to encourage and support community education in the sciences with a special emphasis on neuroscience. An educational team composed of neuroscience faculty, undergraduate majors, and MAT science students from Manhattanville College have developed a program designed for either the middle school or high school curriculum. Different topics in neuroscience will be presented on a regular basis by the team to students in local area schools. The goal of this program is to increase community awareness in the field of neuroscience by introducing the students to the importance of research with an emphasis on animal and human studies and the clinical applications of these studies.

A five-minute graduate presentation is followed by a rotation of students through three ten-minute demonstration/question sessions led by the team and concludes with a five-minute summation.

Arrangements with the individual teachers and details of the presentation will be discussed several weeks prior to the visit and preliminary packets will be supplied for each student. The participating students will benefit greatly if they prepare either with the teacher or independently with this basic information about the nervous system. A good balance between presentation and interaction with the participating students is achieved in this program through demonstrations, videotape, and computer programs. A follow-up packet also stresses problem-solving strategies and the scientific method of inquiry.