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Why are students at Concordia blogging on this site?
Concordia College is a private, liberal arts college serving approximately 2000 students. We focus on the development of student ability to think critically, develop a broad global perspective, and consider creative responses to the world’s biggest problems. This focus on student development, along with the mission of the college, gives rise to the following educational goals at Concordia:
- 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
Rooted in these goals, the CORE Curriculum and “theme” of education at Concordia College is BREW: Becoming Responsibly Engaged in the World. Students at Concordia will become familiar with this concept from day 1 on campus and continue to feel its effects throughout their education at Concordia.
The Neurochemistry course (Chem/Neu 475) is taken by students in their senior year and has goals of integrating the skills and knowledge they’ve received throughout their time at Concordia. Students learn independently and gather information on particular neurochemistry topics, bringing their knowledge and expertise to the class for comprehensive class discussions on many issues related to the particular neurological disease/theme of the week. Blogging is a great way for students to share their knowledge and provide a voice on what they feel is important. The topics discussed in the course are difficult, and involve problems that often times have no simple solutions.
Finally, a very important aspect of scientific communication, and one that I personally feel is too often neglected, is the dissemination of scientific understanding to an audience that may lack the technical background. Students are writing a commentary and summary of the scientific articles discussed each week in class, targeting everyone – the general public. Students are able to appreciate the difficulty in relating such technical information to a broad audience and gain experience in such communication. These are important skills which I hope will help our students BREW and work to lessen the burden on the global community due to mental and neurological disorders.
Enjoy!
Julie Mach
mach@cord.edu