Interactive Student-Centered Neuroscience Workshops for Sixth Graders Enhance Science Knowledge and Education Attitudes

UCNeuro, a University of California, Riverside student-run organization, developed, implemented, and tested a school-based supplemental science intervention. The purpose of this intervention was to improve students’ neuroscience knowledge and education attitudes and meet, in part, California’s new elementary science education standards. The intervention consisted of interactive, hands-on neuroscience workshops on the structure of a neuron, neuron-to-neuron communication, brain structure and function, autonomic nervous system function, and drug effects on the brain. Under the supervision of a faculty neuroscientist, undergraduate students implemented the intervention with 77 sixth-grade students in one school in Riverside County, California. Pre- and post-test results showed increases in students’ neuroscience knowledge, confidence in achieving their goals, likeliness to go to college, and desire to attend school. Excitement about learning science material and school learning opportunities did not change after the workshops. We hope that the UCNeuro workshops can be employed and adapted to the existing curriculum to improve knowledge in the life sciences while California’s new elementary science standards are being operationalized.