Advanced Middle School Biology: A Neuroscience Crash Course!

👋 INTRODUCTION 👋

I am thrilled to offer this course. No, really, I am. 

For my Master's Degree, I was able to focus heavily on some more Cell Biology (those of you who already know me know that I LOVE Cell Bio!), and I was intrigued by Neuroscience. After about 2.5 courses in it, I'm feeling ready to offer this short course on Outschool!

The purpose of this course will be to create a strong foundation for learners who are interested in learning more about the nervous system. In general, the nervous system is a complex organ system and it can be intimidating. This low-stress, fun, learner-focused course will introduce your learner to these advanced topics in a casual and easy way! 

This course is perfect for a student who is intrigued by the nervous system or the brain in any way, wants to learn how nerve signals get around the body, or has a general interest in Biology!!

Keep on reading for a schedule, some expectations, and more information! 

🧠 REQUIREMENTS 🧠

The good news about this course is that students need almost no prior experience in science to enjoy it. Given this, it may be helpful for your learner to understand the following concepts: 
- Our body is made up of cells.
- Our body has nerves, which transmit certain signals throughout the body. 
- Nerves send messages to the brain, and the brain is the center for mental processing in the body.

Your student may be TOO ADVANCED for this course if they understand 3 or more of the following topics: 
- The nervous system is composed of 2 main parts: the CNS and the PNS
- Details about neurotransmitters, how neurons fire, etc
- What an action potential is
- What acetylcholine does in the nervous system and in the body
- Different hemispheres/lobes of the brain and their functions (specifically the left hemisphere, Broca's area, Wernicke's area, angular gyrus, prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, etc.)
- How the brain understands and produces language
- The autonomic nervous system and its different parts: SNS and PNS

🥼 WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 🥼

This class has a live session every week for just 5 weeks. These live sessions are interactive, but the level of interactivity mostly depends on student initiative. I do not "cold-call" or force students to participate. This is a great fit if your student is nervous or anxious about speaking in class! For more interactive students, they can participate in 2 ways: 

- Using our open chat box (as long as class rules are maintained)
- Raising their virtual hand on Zoom and waiting for me to call on them before unmuting

I do my best to maintain an open, loving, and positive space for students of all backgrounds to grow. I view each section of mine as a community that feeds off of each other. Because of this, I have 3 class rules that I expect all students to follow: 

1. Be a good "Zoom citizen." This means that students are expected to...
- avoid spamming the chat box with emoticons or words.
- wait their turn to speak and avoid interrupting their classmates.
- keep their microphone muted when they are not speaking to prevent background noise.
- avoid disrupting the class by drawing on the screen or trying to sabotage the Zoom call.

2. Be kind to everyone. This means that students are expected to...
- speak to other students with respect and kindness.
- avoid teasing or bullying other students. 

3. Be a supportive classmate and enhance the learning environment. This means that students are expected to...
- keep the class relatively on-topic and not try to distract classmates.
- use the chat box responsibly and help to keep the class on track.
- in general, come to class with a positive attitude and the willingness to be a part of our community.

If there is an issue with these rules or if your student violates one of these guidelines, I will usually give them a subtle warning during class time. If it continues beyond this, I will remove them from the session.

I will never require students to take notes, but they are welcome to do so and I'll be happy to accommodate that! 

When students come into the live session, there is usually a "Welcome" slide to greet them and relaxing music playing in the background. Students are free to interact with each other using the chat box as long as they maintain a positive space. 

My teaching style is fun, engaging and upbeat! I often compare scientific topics to real-life situations, and use doodles and drawings to explain concepts. There will be a 5-minute break halfway through the session for students to use the bathroom or grab a snack.

After each session, students can expect to receive all the notes and materials I used during class in the Outschool classroom. All recordings are posted on the Outschool classroom. I do not use outside resources such as Google Classroom or a separate website; everything is on Outschool.

For a schedule, read on!

🔬FULL SCHEDULE🔬

DAY 1: Intro to the Course and The Basics
- Intro the the Course and Expectations
- Get to Know You Session
- What is the Nervous System? Overview
- The Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems
- General Neuron Signaling

DAY 2: (Action Potential) Fire Burnin' On the Dance Floor, Oh-oh-ooooh
- The Electrical Component of Neurons
- How Neurons "Fire" 
- What is an Action Potential? 
- Action Potential Summation
- Excitatory and Inhibitory Potentials (if there's time!)

DAY 3: Neurotransmitters
- The Chemical Component of Neurons
- Dopamine
- Serotonin
- Acetylcholine
- The Neuromuscular Junction
- Neurotransmitter Reuptake

DAY 4: How Do We See? No, I Mean HOW Do We See?
- Overview of the Eyes
- Rods and Cones
- Optic Nerves and Pathway to the Brain
- Recognition and Current Gaps in Knowledge
- Memory (If there's time!)

DAY 5: Talk To Me, Won't You?
- Overview of Language: How do you think we know what to say?
- Parts of the brain that control language: Broca's Area, Wernicke's Area, etc.
- Aphasia and Anomia 
- Wada Procedure (not graphic, I promise!) 

🚪 REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISENROLL EARLY 🚪

I am very fortunate on Outschool to be blessed with great ratings and good experiences with students. Just like all teachers do, I rarely encounter situations where some parents pull their students out of my classes early because there is a misunderstanding or a conflict. To avoid this, here are some of the most popular reasons why this occurs:

1. My classes are on the larger side and they are not meant to be "hands-on." 

I do not mention any "hands-on" activities in my descriptions, but sometimes parents are disappointed when they find that my classes are not one-on-one and they don't include experiments of any kind. I understand that some students need one-on-one attention, but I urge you to look elsewhere on Outschool for some great private lessons from other great teachers. My classes are an interactive lecture-style and they are very much a group setting where a student's participation is dependent on their own initiative. I do provide one-on-one help with the use of Outschool messenger if students need help outside of class time.

2. I do not discipline students' behavior and expect them to know how to conduct themselves.

In general, I treat all my students like young adults. I expect that students know how to behave in an online classroom and that students are in my classes to learn and be productive classroom members. If your learner needs extra help or assistance with paying attention, being disruptive, or acting out, I will not spend lesson time teaching them how to behave and instead probably remove them from the class. Parents tend to love the amount of freedom I give to my students and it typically works out great. If your learner cannot maturely handle this freedom, there are many great teachers on Outschool who maintain a stricter environment!

3. I do not censor or silence students of specific backgrounds, identities, cultures, or orientations.

My main focus as a teacher is to create an environment where students feel accepted, strong, and loved. My zero-tolerance bullying policy and other classroom guidelines reflect this. I also think it is extremely important for students to interact with each other in the online classroom because many of my students are homeschooled and they struggle to make friends. To help with these goals, during certain periods of the class I allow my students to chat freely with one another and get to know each other as humans. This might mean that some students share their pronouns or identities. I do not and will not censor specific orientations or identities from being discussed as every type of student is welcome in my classroom and deserves to be supported. I do censor speech that violates our classroom guidelines; anything that is hateful, harmful, disturbing, or vulgar does warrant action.