Biomedical subjects

Laura L Carruth

Publications and source records attributed to Laura L Carruth.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Brains Rule!: a model program for developing professional stewardship among neuroscientists.

Brains Rule! Neuroscience Expositions, funded through a National Institute on Drug Abuse Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award, has developed a successful model for informal neuroscience education. Each Exposition is a "reverse science fair" in which neuroscientists present short neuroscience teaching modules to students. This study focuses on results of assessments conducted with neuroscientist presenters during Expositions at two sites, Atlanta, Georgia and Corpus Christi, Texas. The effects of participating in the Expositions on presenters' perceptions of their own presentation and communication skills were evaluated, as was the potential for increased active participation by neuroscientists in future outreach programs. In four of the five Expositions studied, pre- versus post-event surveys demonstrated significant changes in presenters' perceptions of their own abilities to explain neuroscience concepts to children. Over the course of an Exposition, presenters learned to fit their approaches to conveying neuroscience concepts to fifth through eighth graders and learned to link information they presented about the brain and nervous system to children's past experiences to improve comprehension. The present data suggest that Brains Rule! Neuroscience Expositions are effective in improving communication and teaching skills among neuroscience professionals and contribute to professional stewardship by increasing motivation to participate in future informal education programs.

Brain↗

PubMed2006

Routes to research for novice undergraduate neuroscientists.

Undergraduate students may be attracted to science and retained in science by engaging in laboratory research. Experience as an apprentice in a scientist's laboratory can be effective in this regard, but the pool of willing scientists is sometimes limited and sustained contact between students and faculty is sometimes minimal. We report outcomes from two different models of a summer neuroscience research program: an Apprenticeship Model (AM) in which individual students joined established research laboratories, and a Collaborative Learning Model (CLM) in which teams of students worked through a guided curriculum and then conducted independent experimentation. Assessed outcomes included attitudes toward science, attitudes toward neuroscience, confidence with neuroscience concepts, and confidence with science skills, measured via pre-, mid-, and postprogram surveys. Both models elevated attitudes toward neuroscience, confidence with neuroscience concepts, and confidence with science skills, but neither model altered attitudes toward science. Consistent with the CLM design emphasizing independent experimentation, only CLM participants reported elevated ability to design experiments. The present data comprise the first of five yearly analyses on this cohort of participants; long-term follow-up will determine whether the two program models are equally effective routes to research or other science-related careers for novice undergraduate neuroscientists.

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PubMed2002

Sex chromosome genes directly affect brain sexual differentiation.

Sex differences in the brain are caused by differences in gonadal secretions: higher levels of testosterone during fetal and neonatal life cause the male brain to develop differently than the female brain. In contrast, genes encoded on the sex chromosomes are not thought to contribute directly to sex differences in brain development, even though male (XY) cells express Y-chromosome genes that are not present in female (XX) cells, and XX cells may have a higher dose of some X-chromosome genes. Using mice in which the genetic sex of the brain (XX versus XY) was independent of gonadal phenotype (testes versus ovaries), we found that XY and XX brain cells differed in phenotype, indicating that a brain cell's complement of sex chromosomes may contribute to its sexual differentiation.

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