Adapting the learning-cycle to enrich undergraduate neuroscience education for all students

A learning-cycle approach to science instruction is not new to science educators (Karplus, 1977; Kolb, 1984; Bergquist, 1991; Zollman, 1990; Allard and Barman, 1994). Somewhat less known, however, is the usefulness of this approach for creating lab activities for a broad audience of undergraduates. The following paper presents a brief overview of a laboratory activity that can be adapted for use by instructors of introductory neuroscience courses. The three-hour activity is geared towards tapping key elements of the learning-cycle approach, with a particular emphasis on the exploration phase of the model. Students work as members of small teams to explore a contemporary issue involving memory and gain hands-on experience from the outset, to which conceptual information is then added during lecture the following week. The approach is in marked contrast to the more traditional practice in the sciences where laboratory activities generally serve to punctuate already presented lecture material.