"I Can Code": An Innovative Workshop Introducing Students to Coding in the Context of Neuroscience Research

Learning to code and teaching it present distinct challenges for both students and instructors. This paper describes a workshop designed to help instructors introduce coding to neuroscience undergraduates and to help students get started with coding. The workshop integrates learning within a neuroscience context: instead of using abstract examples, students apply coding directly to real data from a published neuroscience research paper. The workshop was delivered as a brief (2-3-hour) session embedded within a required undergraduate neuroscience laboratory course. Survey data showed the workshop significantly enhanced students' learning experience, boosting enjoyment, confidence, self-rated coding ability, and perceived usefulness. These findings suggest that the workshop can enhance students' motivation, leading to better engagement and learning outcomes. We propose that this model of contextualized learning could help overcome current barriers in computational education for neuroscience.