
The Neuroscience Community Education Lab studies how the social dynamics of students teaching and learning together may contribute to professional skills, well-being, and academic achievement.
Lori Flanagan-Cato
The Neuroscience Community Education Lab studies how the social dynamics of students teaching and learning together may contribute to professional skills, well-being, and academic achievement.
Everyday Neuroscience is an academically based community service course in which neuroscience majors create neuroscience lab activities for high school students who attend a nearby under-resourced public high school .
Everyday Neuroscience complements the traditional content-based neuroscience curriculum by preparing students to meaningfully deploy their knowledge beyond the traditional campus, building skills in communication, innovation, and critical thinking.
The neuroscience-based lab activities are designed to reinforce fundamental biological concepts, such as cell theory, diffusion and osmosis, protein function, organ structure-function relationships, evolution, and genetics.
Everyday Neuroscience is a collaboration with the science classes at Paul Robeson High School. The teachers, administrators, and students at Robeson are vital to the success of the course. Penn’s Netter Center for Community Engagement also provides generous guidance and support.
Lori Flanagan-Cato created the Everyday Neuroscience course in 2016. She received her B.A. (psychology) from Rutgers, her Ph.D. (neuroscience) from Pitt, and her M.Ed. (education policy) from Penn.
Paul Robeson High School, located in West Philadelphia, provides students with rigorous and relevant educational experiences.
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships is Penn’s core facility to foster beneficial relationships between the university and West Philadelphia.
https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/about-center/our-mission
Peter Nwaoba, a Penn psychology major (CAS, 2019), completed an independent study project entitled “Does an ABCS neuroscience outreach program improve high school achievement?”
Christina Steele, a Penn psychology major (CAS, 2020), completed an Honors Thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Adrianna Jenkins entitled “A Real-World Study of the Contact Hypothesis: Intergroup Contact in Academic-Based Service Learning.”
Cecelia Longo, an Oberlin College graduate ( 2020) worked as a summer intern to analyze the educational impact of Everyday Neuroscience.
Violet Tu (CAS 2021) and Nico Santiago (CAS 2022) are currently analyzing possible effects of our Robeson partnership on social perceptions.
Students interested in working on this project as a research assistant, an independent study student, or a work study student, can email Professor Flanagan-Cato to express interest. A commitment of two semesters, 10 hours per week, is required.
Each semester presents new insights into what Penn and Robeson students gain from the course and where the course can better address students’ needs.
In the coming year, the course will focus on:
Publication
Flanagan-Cato, L.M. Everyday Neuroscience: A Community Engagement Course. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 18(1):A44-A50; 2019.
https://www.funjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/june-18-44.pdf?x89760
Loretta M. Flanagan-Cato, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology
Co-Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program
Office Location
Department of Psychology University of Pennsylvania |
304B Lynch Biology Laboratory
433 South University Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19104-6241 |
Office Phone | 215-898-4085 |
Email Address | flanagan@psych.upenn.edu |