Brains for the Next Decade

Just over half way through the "decade of the brain," a group of us got together for a month to think about neurobiology. High school teachers from all over the United States (and one from Grenada) gathered to consider how neurobiology might be taught in high school.

"Not for me!" you might be saying. "I already have too many things to teach." So do we all, but don’t stop reading yet. There’s something in this book for you. Our goal in preparing this collection is not so much to create a new curriculum as to provide ideas to help you teach.

Neurobiology is all kinds of things -- animal behavior, molecular biology, embryology, electrophysiology, brain anatomy, drugs.... Given the intrinsic interest we all have in things neural, we think these exercises provide all kinds of entries into biology. You don’t need to have a separate unit on the brain or nervous system -- but if you do, there are things in here for you. And if you don’t, there is still bound to be something in here for you.

The fundamental conviction on which the Woodrow Wilson National Leadership Program for Teachers is based is that you can trust good people to do good work if you give them the tools. We want you to use these exercises in ways that suit you best. Of course, if you want to start doing a lot more about neurobiology, the resources are here to help you do that. On the other hand, if there is one exercise in here that turns your students on to biology, if there is one idea that refreshes you and invigorates your teaching, then our work has been worth it.

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