In college, another wonderful teacher introduced me to the field of neuroscience and his enthusiasm was infectious. In graduate school, my statistical professor forced me to learn statistics. I was committed to learning. Good teaching involves simultaneously challenging students and then supporting them. Well certainly my choice of a career in neuroscience was linked to doing lab work with a professor with research interests in the area.
Scientists approach a problem by asking questions.
Mentoring students in laboratory situations is the best way to have them understand both the process and the content of science. Oberlin has an unusually well developed program in the neurosciences. I think we cover this field well and by doing so provide an interdisciplinary education with training in math, chemistry, biology, psychology, as well as neuroscience. From seeing our program, I'd like them to think about the value of interdisciplinary teaching as an alternative approach to teaching students in more discipline based modalities. The kaleidoscopic metaphor means, on one level, that everything is connected, that as effective new programs, policies and practices are introduced in one arena, it affects the whole system.