If you would have asked me at any point in time before this semester, what class are you most looking forward to? I without a doubt would have said neurochemistry. It was exactly the area of science I could see myself in the future. It happened to be a bonus that it also satisfied the CORE requirement of a capstone course.
Throughout the course I have greatly enjoyed the content of each paper, and has solidified my appreciation and drive to study neurochemistry.
An integral part of the semester was indeed the course content, but what made it unique was the community action project. The project consisted of students from neurochemistry as well as social work. Together, they would design and implement a project where they would reach out to the community and apply our studies to enrich the community.
This project very clearly fulfills Concordia’s five goals of liberal learning:
- Instill a love of learning- This project sought to take current knowledge and apply it to a realm outside the classroom. Presumably students in the class would be interested in the course content due to the elective nature for most in the class. Additionally, communication between scientists and us as students in emphasized each week through the reading and critical analysis of scientific papers. Thereby cultivating a love and appreciation for learning.
- Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities- The group work primarily jumps out to me with this goal in mind. No matter what career a student will find themselves in, they will almost certainly be in a team of some sort. Effective teamwork is an absolutely essential skill moving forward in our lives outside of Concordia. Moreover, the critical thinking and discussion leading required by the course format also lends itself well to these transferable skills.
- Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections- With this goal in mind, the course is almost poetic. In the specific context of neurochemistry, there are many pathways and factors that contribute to the main focus of the week, mirroring disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. However, holistically, the obvious connection is the collaboration with the social work students and identifying the most effective way to work as a team and achieve a common goal.
- Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding- I greatly appreciate the opportunity to write this very reflection. All too often I feel people are in a rush to do something and move on. They do not take time to reflect and learn from an experience. It is exceedingly difficult for a single course to accomplish this goal of liberal learning because it is heavily reliant on the individual being willing to take the time to evaluate an understanding. A class can try to provide outlets and facilitate self-understanding, but the bottom line is that it is simply up to the individual. Activities such as this reflection and the oral portion of the exams are good ways to guide someone on the path of reflection.
- Encourage responsible participation in the world- The classic BREW. With regards to this course, I think the concept of BREW is much more subtle, and it is rooted in our Friday discussions. Week after week, the main point of any given discussion is society. We are always looking to see how what we learned over the week can be applied in the wider context of the community, and I think that is a valuable mindset to have.
I found the community action project beneficial. I thought it was lovely how we could apply our knowledge where it would be useful for another group of people. Again, we often get bogged down in our own reality of Concordia and it becomes too easy to forget a world exists off campus. It was rewarding to feel like my team contributed something beneficial to our chosen audience. But, the project was not without its challenges, as my team consisted of a total of eight people (5 neurochem and 3 social work), I felt the teams were too large to effectively harness each members strengths. It became all too easy for members to take a back seat and only do as they are told. This is necessary in some circumstances, but each member should contribute to the conception and formation of the project. I acknowledge that one cannot have an effective team of “leaders” and similarly, “followers.” But as people have different personalities, and some louder than others, it became apparent that individuals frequently stepped into the role of “leader” and had a tendency to cast a shadow over others in the group (myself being one of these individuals).
Yes, I and other loud members of my group are to blame for overshadowing other more reserved members. But it is also their responsibility to speak up and make their opinions heard; especially when there was ample opportunity given. This I have found is a common group dynamic. However, it was accentuated due to the large group size. Therefore, ideally moving forward there would be smaller groups, but maintaining a decent class to class ratio of members in each group. There are obviously some constraints on this. The classes simply do not have the same number of students, making it nearly impossible to have the same class to class ratio in each group. Perhaps a solution to this would be to have a group of specifically neurochemistry students and they would have to work all the more to cater their project to the general public (it can be so easy to just fall into using the science jargon we, but not the public are familiar with). You do lose the aspect of class to class collaboration, but I think the overall benefit of smaller more representative groups would be worth the trade. Perhaps particularly ambitious neurochem students should be selected for the group without social work students.
Overall, I thought the community action projects were an excellent way to interact and communicate with people outside the chemistry, biology, or psychology majors. It puts science in perspective. This in tandem with the course content and layout of reading papers, diving deeper, and leading a discussion proved a valuable exercise in literature comprehension, analysis, teamwork, and most importantly, communication. Science is utterly meaningless if we do not communicate, and with the fear and misunderstanding of science that is in current society, it becomes even more imperative to communicate effectively. The community action project was an excellent outlet and mode of practice for future professionals in science.
