As an international student, I had no idea what a capstone course means. When I first heard the word “capstone”, I thought it was just a word that I did not know. And well, I knew nothing about a capstone course. At first, when I registered, I expected that the Neurochemistry class would be just hard, with a lot of memorization and reading.
I am glad that I was wrong.
Even before the semester begin, the professor invited the students to explain what we should expect of the capstone course. I got really excited, because it would be a chance to not just learn about Neuroscience, but to TALK and DISCUSS about it.
Reading through Concordia goals for liberal learning, I just thought that Neuroscience is the perfect scientific area to put all of them into practice.
- Instill a love for learning
- Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
- Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections
- Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding
- Encourage responsible participation in the world
I mean, who would not love learn more about what is going on in the brain and how it works? (Ok, maybe some people would not, but I know I love it)
With the schema that the professor created, where every week all the students had to present more information about some small part of a topic, I believe that we all improved our skills in transferring intellectual capacities. We were not only students, we ended up being teachers, sharing what we learned with the whole class.
Neuroscience, a scientific area that involves biology, psychology, data processing, chemistry, nutrition, and so on. Learning about the brain instigates you to make the connections between all these subjects. It is an interdisciplinary course, and I dare say that is the most interdisciplinary of all.
I believe that we have to unite all the disciplines in order to better understand the complex structure that the brain is.
Understanding and learning about the brain is to understand and learn about ourselves. It is to unveil our behaviors and beliefs, seeking out a way to improve our society.
Responsible participation in the world is what neuroscience is about. In our class, we discussed every week how brain diseases affect our society and how we could treat them. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Schizophrenia, Bulimia, Obesity, Autism, Alcohol and Nicotine addiction. All these diseases and even more were discussed in each week, what made me realize how much neuroscientists are working in order to understand how we could help people that are suffering with brain diseases.
I am glad that I took this capstone course as a part of my year in Concordia. I would never have the chance to do such a different and exciting class back in Brazil. In the end, it was not just a class, it was an opportunity to learn and appreciate science, improving my communication and research skills. I will leave Concordia proud and happy to have participated in this great experience that was Neurochemistry class.
