Active Learning and Community Engagement: Pedagogical Synergy through the "Mobile Neuroscience Lab" Project

The Mobile Neuroscience Lab is a project that facilitates combined pedagogical strategies of active learning and neuroscience outreach as a service learning component of a physiological psychology course. The overall project goals were to improve science knowledge, foster oral communication, and encourage positive science attitudes and beliefs. Of these goals, positive science attitudes and beliefs were assessed. During active learning, university students completed hands-on activities corresponding to the physiological psychology course. Following, during the neuroscience outreach activity ("learning through teaching"), university students and middle school students engaged in small group activities (one university student to five middle school students) using the same hands-on activities. Assessment of the perceived benefit of the active learning showed that university and middle school students responded favorably to the hands-on activities. Students' science attitudes were also assessed (Hillman et al., 2016) using a pre-test, post-test design. Data showed that the neuroscience activity did not change middle school science attitudes and beliefs (p > .05), possibly as the science attitudes and beliefs were already positive (moderate to high) prior to the outreach activity. However, qualitative data showed that the aspect of the neuroscience outreach activity that most assisted the middle school students in their learning was seeing the brain, touching the brain, and social interaction with the university students. Overall, the pedagogical strategies of active learning, and "learning through teaching", were received with enthusiasm by university and secondary education students. Future studies will include classroom teachers' assessment of these hands-on activities.