Neurochemistry 475 has given me new skills, opportunities, and experiences, while contributing to my knowledge on a vast range of topics including: Anxiety, Mental Illness, Addiction, Concussion, Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism, Obesity, Endocannabinoids, and Music in the Brain. I will now reflect on the benefits of the Neurochemistry 475 experience.
Benefits of the Experience
Neurochemistry 475 has allowed me to apply the skills and knowledge I have developed at Concordia. This is because I had learned about neuroanatomy, pathways, neurochemicals, signal transductions, as well as other components of the central nervous system in previous courses. But neurochemistry put all the puzzle pieces together to create a big picture. Neurochemistry also challenged previous information I had obtained over my college career and forced me to think critically about different topics. Not only did this course force me to think critically, I also had to practice reading, summarizing, and understanding literature on my own, since this course is largely discussion based. Having a deep understanding of the literature is extremely important in order to communicate effectively to peers and the public. The skill of communication is key to gaining an understanding of a wide range of information and having sophisticated conversations to create a bigger picture, as well as inform the public about a wide range of issues. The students would have discussions every class period in different formats and then create individual blog posts for the public to read. When communicating with the public we are becoming responsibly engaged in the world (BREW), which will hopefully lead to the spread of knowledge and ideas to create a positive outcome.
Neurochemistry 475 is offered at Concordia College at Moorhead, which is a liberal arts institution. This means that they focus on instilling a love for learning, developing new foundational and intellectual capacities, understanding different perspectives and their connections, create a sense of overall self-understanding, and encourages people to become responsibly engaged in the world. These focuses can be shown through neurochemistry 475 because learning is encouraged not only in the classroom, but students are asked to practice skills that will help with learning after the college experience. This course emphasized the importance of understanding different disabilities so we as researchers might be able to help develop new therapeutics, be empathetic to others situations, and understand why people may behave in a certain manner. Also, as previously mentioned, during this course the students wrote blog posts to interact with and educate the community. But this course also offered a PEAK experience where students were further able to become responsibly engaged with the community through a community action project. For example, my community action group gathered data throughout the community about mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, summarized the data, and sent out pamphlets to multiple facilities, so they could make adjustments that would benefit their population they work with.
Conclusion
Overall, this course has given me new opportunities and experiences, which strengthened my communication and critical thinking skills. Neurochemistry 475 has also enlightened me about neurochemicals and signal transduction that occurs in the central nervous system. As well as educate me about what happens when the mechanisms are disrupted in neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. The course experience as a whole has helped me become responsibly engaged in the world, while becoming a more knowledgeable and well rounded individual, which will come in handy in any career path I might choose.
