Requirements for the Current Concentration and the New Major

Students will demonstrate:

1. knowledge of neuroscience, including:
   1. history of neuroscience;
   2. fundamental principles of cellular and neuron-endocrine systems;
   3. scientific questions addressed by neuroscientists;
   4. methodologies employed in neuroscience research;
   5. the language of neuroscience, especially pertaining to interdisciplinary dialogue.
2. awareness of the scope of neuroscience including the breadth of the field, the diversity of research questions and approaches that compose it, and the thematic principles that unify and define it.
3. awareness that the scope of neuroscience necessitates an interdisciplinary perspective; they will show competence in approaching a problem using tools, symbols and paradigms from multiple disciplines.
4. familiarity with the scientific process, including the ability to independently
   1. critique and synthesize scientific literature;
   2. develop a testable hypothesis;
   3. identify and use appropriate instrumentation;
   4. design a controlled experiment;
   5. interpret data;
   6. communicate experimental results
5. knowledge of the breadth of careers available to neuroscience students and the educational steps and other activities prerequisite to these career paths, including technical competence and the ability to identify and use appropriate professional resources.

April 2008

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1. Students will describe the basic structure and function of the nervous system at multiple levels of organization (e.g. spanning from molecules to cells to circuits to systems to behavior).  
2. Students will be able to perform experiments using tools, techniques, strategies, and terminology to answer neuroscience questions across multiple levels of organization of the nervous system. 
3. Students will critically analyze the primary neuroscience literature by:
   1. effectively searching and locating relevant primary literature for a given neuroscience topic
   2. independently identifying the research question(s) addressed
   3. evaluating the appropriateness of experimental design and methods
   4. interpreting data such as images, graphs, and numerical results
   5. synthesizing multiple sources to review the current state of a subfield within neuroscience, including important unanswered questions
4. Students will communicate neuroscience findings: 

1. 1. that include their own as well as the results of others
   2. in oral, graphical, or written form
   3. to a variety of audiences such as the general public, peers, or professional neuroscientists

5. Students will reflect on the breadth of careers available to neuroscience students and the educational steps and other activities prerequisite to these career paths.

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