I enjoyed this Neurochemistry capstone course firstly, because of the interesting and fascinating topics that we covered. In the beginning part of the course, we discussed more of the biochemistry aspects and learned about different pathways, receptors, and substances within the human body that would provide us with a foundation for understanding the articles that were later to come. I don’t think that I would have gotten nearly as much out of the papers if we hadn’t discussed some of these pathways and mechanisms beforehand. The topics of the papers we discussed included concussions, addiction, obesity, bipolar, autism, and others. These were great articles to discuss because they covered a broad spectrum of disorders and they were also things that most of us have heard of and encountered at some point in our lives. However, I think that the most important skill I learned in this course is how to dissect these papers, and investigate different aspects of them in order to understand more about the whole picture. This will be a valuable skill as I continue my education and need to know how to investigate every aspect of a topic in order to fully understand it. Other aspects of this course such as the discussion of our individual areas of investigation, class discussions, and writing blog posts are all important skills to being a scientist. Concordia prides itself in “sending out thoughtful and informed individuals to influence the affairs of the world.” In order to be an effective scientist, one needs to share their area of expertise with other scientists, and know how to communicate their knowledge and discoveries both with other scientists and the general public. In this way, ideas and knowledge can be shared, and scientific advances and further discoveries can be made. This course has taught me how to do that through class discussions, investigations, and writing blog posts for the public to see.
Final Reflections
