Cobbers on the Brain

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         It’s finals week everyone, we made it to the end of the semester and are nearing the finish line. Because it’s finals week, and motivation is at an all time low I will be providing you relatable, and hopefully something you’ll find funny throughout the rest of this blog. I hope my efforts make your finals week just a little brighter. The question at hand is “how did this class allow you to integrate and apply the skills and competencies you gained throughout your education at Concordia.” Because as you have already realized after nearly completing this class,  did more than simply learn what an action potential was and how ions flow in and out of the cell, huge win.

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         Let’s start with the Peak project shall we? If we’re being completely honest with ourselves almost none of us like group projects, unless we’re the one being pulled along throughout the entire process. But if we think about it for a minute, Concordia has put our group skills to the test from day one. We’ve had group projects throughout our entire collegiate career, some examples: working on a combined research paper, working on a danio rerio (zebrafish) project, working with those annoying little things in biology class with people who never came to class, etc.

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Whether we’d like to admit it or not, we’ve been doing group projects this entire time, theoretically this has prepared us for the real world. Because, like class, we will not always get along with our coworkers. We might have an annoying individual in our group, we might have to carry the entire workload and receive no extra credit or praise for doing so, it’s part of life and the real world that awaits us. As Forest Gump would say, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get,” the same goes for coworkers in the real world. Our PEAK project allowed us to see the accumulation of our hard work throughout college, allowing us to see not only how far we’ve come in terms of improving our collaboration skills, but also how much we can still improve in the future after graduation. Not one group would say that the work was equally distributed, that they didn’t have at least one LAZY group member, or that everything went perfectly. And that’s alright, that’s real life and this class has helped us see and deal with that reality. The PEAK project encompasses the last three goals of Concordia’s liberal learning. I’ll paraphrase them but you theoretically all know what they are already; responsible participation in the world, understanding of interdisciplinary connections, and cultivating understanding. I will speak in terms of what my PEAK group accomplished because I don’t know what each of you did just yet. 

Image 4; just remember, when you’re explaining the brain to someone who doesn’t know much about it, you can often overwhelm them

         During our groups time working with Prairie St. Johns in Fargo, we were able to participate in the world, the real world, and not just some hypothetical setting in a classroom surrounded by sleeping students at 8 a.m. I will be perfectly blunt here, my group had MANY obstacles and challenges when it came to interdisciplinary perspectives and connections. The social work majors did not always see eye to eye with the neurochemistry students, and certainly the same can be said the other way around. But at the end of the day we figured out our differences and managed to deliver 160 meals to the local community, mental health de-stigmatization information, and information about local resources and shelters. We gave 140 of the 160 meals to the local homeless shelters, 5 shelters each received just under 30 meals each, some even got chicken wild rice soup hot out of the pot. And you know what the best part about the entire experience was? It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all 8 members of the group. Sure not everyone carried their weight equally, but at the end of the day if those that did the bare minimum didn’t even do that much, those that did the most would have had to do even more. The entire experience gave all those who contributed a sense of self-understanding and some perspective in life. Let me explain, when we presented the shelters with the meals that we had prepared they showed us a level of gratefulness that was pure and heartfelt. It was as if we had just given them a new car or a new home, it was a moment that put everything into context and showed us as students that the problems that we face on a daily basis may not be as bad as we originally thought, essentially it gave us perspective. I realized that it is hard to compare my problems as a college student, eating 3 (or more) meals a day, to the hardships of those who live without proper housing. It was a humbling experience.

Image 5; I mean, this one doesn’t need any explanation, come on

         What other skills has this class allowed us to foster? Well for me at least this class allowed me to better understand research papers and scientific writing in general. We as a class probably take this for granted, but hand one of our readings to someone who doesn’t have a background in scientific writings and see just how confused they are by the MAPK pathway. I can promise you this, no matter how confused you are by that gobbly gook, they are 10x more confused. Unlike them you know that if you had to you could figure out every detail of that paper. Whether through additional research, breaking down the paper into individual categories like we do on Wednesdays, or extremely careful and slow reading of every detail in a piece of literature, at the end of the day you have the capacity to figure it out on your own. I unironically showed my dad what I was reading the other day and he damn near had a stroke, give yourself some credit you’ve come a long way. You probably see a piece of literature now and say to yourself, “I could figure that out, it might take me a week (or a semester) but I could do it.” These concepts relate directly to Concordia’s first two goals for liberal learning. Our love of learning has improved, whether you think you can or not you certainly have the capacity to read that paper on the MAPK pathway, and your intellectual capacity has grown significantly. I’m not just talking about this class, sure you picked some things up and honed your skills in new ways, but this class is the accumulation of your entire college experience, it is a way to see just how far you’ve come.

Image 6; the only thing my neurons can seem to remember come test day

         That’s it everyone, that’s my final blog post. One thing I’d like to comment on, I know that my posts can be a little goofy and light hearted, but that’s because I want to explain information effectively but also in a way that entertains the reader. I hope that you can all appreciate that I am trying to make this a good time, not only for me as the writer, but also for you as the reader. It is important that we as “scientists” explain complex information in  a way that our audience can understand. I will need to be able to do this in my near future, if I as the doctor cannot explain to my patient what is wrong with them in an effective manner, I am doing my job incorrectly. Thank you all for a great semester, best of luck in your future and ROLL COBBS.

Neurochemistry has allowed me to integrate and apply the skills and competencies I have gained throughout my time at Concordia in the following ways. It caused me to test my knowledge thus far in Neurochemistry and beyond, and contribute, communicate, and deliver it effectively to my peers. While scientists are often able to understand and conceptualize material for themselves, they often lack the ability to communicate it effectively and cohesively to others. This course challenged and tested me in this area, as we were tested on our ability to not only know the science, but also effectively communicate it as well.

Neurochemistry has allowed me to take my love for learning, especially learning neuroscience, and excel in it. The course dove deep in the mechanisms and signaling in many different disorders, and I was able to practice and deepen my love for learning by examining and broadening my scope of understanding around these disorders, which helped me to become even more passionate about the ability to heal or change the signaling mechanisms.

Throughout all of my educational career, I have taken courses all over the “science spectrum.” Courses that include biology, chemistry, neuroscience, morality, ethics, math, etc. All of these courses feel combined and put to the test in Neurochemistry. All of these different types of courses matter when it comes to neurochemistry and background in all of them was very important. This knowledge allowed me to have a firm foundation in my education as a whole, and transfer this knowledge into the Neurochemistry course.

The course itself integrates all areas of learning. Educationally, personally, and professionally, by testing your knowledge and ability to apply that to a classroom setting, and in the community as well. This integration is important for “BREWing” as it allows a student to take the skills and knowledge they have learned and apply it in the real world. I think the course was a set and up and reflective of this very idea, as it allows the students to engage with others and share their insight and knowledge, as well as personal experiences with the class. This was great to see as we all have different backgrounds and insights to offer, and we can all learn something from one another through sharing and collaborating together. Since the course was based on discussion and communicating the science, this is a perfect example of the skills that can be applied to real world situations when we as students BREW. We will need to effectively communicate and collaborate with others about the science, about our own experiences and perspectives as well as justify and reason, which the course design allowed for. Overall, the Neurochemistry course allowed me to grow in my knowledge of science, and ability to effectively communicate this knowledge with others.

Figure 1: The Integrated Science Center of Concordia college.

Integrated learning at Concordia College

To me, learning at a liberal arts college is meant to produce well rounded individuals that are as prepared as possible to take on the problems of the world as possible. Through this, a variety of classes and disciplines are required to be taken by students to ensure they are exposed to different studies, ideas, and careers. But why should a chemist have to take religion classes? Or a theatre major having to a lab science class? Despite the two examples mentioned above seeming very opposite at face value, they are more interconnected than many think. This is shown through a quote from Thucydides, who was perhaps the most important historian of ancient times as he accounted for the nearly three-decades long conflict between ancient Sparta and Athens as well as the war between ancient Greece and Persia:

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

This quote shows in dramatic fashion the importance of interdisciplinary study. But take a prelaw major for example. How could we expect a future environmental lawyer to be effective if they’ve never been in a biology class? So, while liberal learning might not always be the most clear to students being required to take the classes, there is a deeper connection between different disciplines.

Figure 2: A man clearly confused by the problem ahead of him.

How my resume improved

College is all about building the skills necessary to be successful in the future, whether that be in life or through a career. This semester, perhaps more than any other, had me looking like the poor guy in Figure 2. Between this Neurochemistry class and Physical Chemistry there were countless times where I simply had no idea how to answer the question at hand, whether it be derive the Maxwell relations or determine what is causing an increase in prevalence of PTSD and other stress related disorders in women compared to men. But, it was through questions like these that I really developed my ability to problem solve. Of course everyone is going to put that they work well independently and are a good problem solver on their resume, but what if your problem has infinitely many wrong answers, but also an answer that isn’t necessarily right or solvable?

I think that is the kind of problem solving I found myself really developing this semester, especially with the way the exams were designed. By not having the paper and only some of the data coming from it, we as students had to use our prior knowledge of signaling pathways to derive a viable cause for the data we were given. During both of these exams, I found myself reading through all the given information and then just thinking ‘I have no idea what’s going on.’ But I just kept piecing together the things I did know with what was given and soon enough I had a pretty decent guess at what was happening in the article.

What the future holds

The skills learned in this class as well as the ones I’ve developed during my Concordia career, I believed have given me a solid foundation to work off in the future. As I mentioned earlier, this class really helped me problem solve through situations that don’t have a clear answer. I think this will be very helpful as I am planning to attend graduate school next fall. In that environment, I will be working through problems that don’t have an answer yet. With that, I will need to be able to effectively communicate my ideas and findings to other people. While blogging is a fairly casual way of doing that, the skill still helps me be able to communicate with other effectively. And because of these reasons I believe that this class as well as Concordia College’s liberal learning program has helped to prepare me to be successful in the future.

I had expectations of this course before taking it but was surprised in the end. My expectations of this course included having lectures, exams, and quizzes similar to the other courses I have taken. The format of this class was a new experience for me and I was hesitant at the start of the semester about how it would go. I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed and learned throughout this class. The process of learning was very independent during neurochemistry. I learned more skills related to finding information on my own and communicating it to classmates. The topics we discussed required researching them independently and then teaching them to other students. I acquired new skills about how to communicate information efficiently and effectively. 

The skills I learned in this class will greatly benefit me in my future career. I plan to work for a few years and then apply to medical school. Learning how to conduct independent research, properly read research articles, and successfully communicate knowledge to others are all skills I expanded on throughout neurochemistry. These are all necessary skills to be successful in any career, especially in the field of medicine. I believe my 2.5 years at a liberal arts college have helped me realize the capabilities I have. There have been many opportunities for me to learn about the topics I want to and teach others about them. Attending a liberal arts college, to me, means providing students with a well-rounded education and preparing them for life after college. 

If I were to highlight my resume with skills that I improved upon this semester, I would choose to discuss how I have gotten better at reading and understanding research articles. There are an endless number of topics to read articles about, but how you read them is important. It is difficult to understand all topics within a paper if you do not have any previous knowledge of the research being discussed. Neurochemistry has helped me to start reading every paper with an open mind and knowledge that I will not understand everything after reading it one time. It is important to note questions and the need for clarification when reading an article. I enjoyed this class because I was able to openly ask questions and talk about things I did not understand. This course helped me to effectively read research articles and build communication skills when discussing the article. 

I was able to integrate a lot of information from previous courses into this class. I have taken a variety of biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and psychology courses that provided relevant information for neurochemistry. Previous courses have focused on different skills such as exam taking, dissections, and working in a laboratory. All things I learned in the past were applicable to different weeks of content during neurochemistry. I felt I had a greater understanding of topics such as mental illness, anxiety, and sleep because of my previous courses in psychology and neuroscience. It was interesting to learn more about topics I did not know much about such as autism, obesity, and endocannabinoids. Overall, I enjoyed this course and how I was able to integrate old skills into expanding upon new ones.

As a student who is a psychology major and does not have a knack for chemistry, I was very intimidated going into this class. I was more focused on the idea that this would be the final core class I would have to take at Concordia, so I started off rough in the class. I was less focused on understanding and applying the material to other things I had learned and more focused on going through the motions to get through the class. After the first exam, I had a moment of realization; I knew that I was not doing enough in order to be successful, and I hated the idea of that. From that point on, I was determined to learn the material properly. I had continuously told myself that I just “wasn’t good at chemistry so I won’t do well.” That fixed mindset was what was weighing me down, and after this class, I now believe in myself when it comes to chemistry. My biggest learning achievement was learning how to properly read scientific articles. When I first started the class, I would read the articles but not get much information out of it. It was almost like I didn’t know what I was supposed to be getting out of the article. Once I changed the style in which I read the articles, it opened a whole new door of understanding for myself. I started to enjoy learning the material, I would go out of my way to do extra research for different areas of the article, I had re-instilled my love for learning. The biggest application this class had to offer for me was communication with other students. I tended to be quiet in class considering I didn’t know much about the material compared to other students. Over time though, I started to realize it was less about knowing the material and was more about being able to voice your thoughts with the other students. Communication was my most improved skill by far as a result of this class. I found myself participating more in not only discussions for this class, but also in my job and other classes as well. I learned to be more confident in what I say which made me more likely to speak up. Learning at a liberal arts institution is so much more than just learning class material. To me, it’s about applying what you learn to what you do, how you can make people’s lives better around you with the information provided. It’s about the lessons you’ll carry into your next chapter and learning there’s no limit on what you can accomplish. The problem that required the most disciplinary perspective was the PEAK project. This is because there are students from two entirely different disciplinaries trying to work together as one instead of two. Groups can be so focused on the fact that their disciplinaries are different, like working from a social work perspective compared to a chemistry perspective, but what’s great about having two different groups is that you can use multiple disciplinaries to your advantage. The social work students were able to use the skills they’ve learned from classes to properly engage and spread the word of the project while the chemistry students were able to offer the proper material for putting together an effectively worded project. When two groups can come together, the work can be inspirational; when two groups can’t come together, there is not hope for a successful project. It’s easy to think that because other people are different from you, that you won’t be able to work together. However, I think that was the lesson Concordia instilled on us best, that everyone is different and no matter how different you are from someone, the only thing that is stopping you from working well together is the thoughts in your own mind.

When I first signed up for neurochemistry, I was worried about my lack of knowledge in regard to chemistry, but I knew I had a love for neuroscience that I wanted to learn more about. Concordia has given me the opportunity to take what I love and learn about it in more ways than one. While taking other neuroscience classes here I have learned the basics and lightly touched on different pathways that are involved. However, it was never to the extent of what neurochemistry had to offer, which is understandable to have a class fully designated to looking at all different signaling pathways and their correlations to many different areas in the brain. I knew I would struggle with my lack of chemistry knowledge but with the help of many classmates I became more familiar with the information that was given during class. Having a good background in chemistry is important for this class but do not think that your lack of information will make your opinion less than that. Everyone comes into the class with knowledge about different topics and experiences that aid in conversations regarding every topic. When thinking about this struggle, Concordia’s motto of BREW was engraved into my mind. We as Concordia students base our four-year educational experience from our rooted value being BREW. Becoming responsibly engaged in the world is a way of life. It’s looking at the world and understanding the problems that each person may face, helping always, and stepping forward when everyone else might be afraid. The experiences and lessons I learned in this class taught me how to engage in my world, while also showing me how I could help others from the lessons I learned. This class has also deeply enforced my love for learning, especially when it comes to something that I may not feel the most confident in. It has made me reach out of my comfort zone when asking other students for clarification and well as showing me different study methods that are more beneficial than what I had been using previously. For example, previously I would look over the topic at hand and try and memorize what was being discussed. However, this was not the most efficient method for this class, instead, I found it better to draw out the different signaling pathways in order to see what exactly they followed and how different proteins interacted within that pathway. The types of learning that were involved in neurochemistry highly centered around group work/discussion. For this type of class I think this is the most beneficial way in which the subject can be taught. If we were to sit down and have the class purely lecture based, I feel as though it would not be as enjoyable. Though it is important to understand the baseline of what the different articles are talking about we would miss all the questions that we as individuals have on varying topics. This also teaches us how to question what we are reading and find ways to answer the questions we have through the use of published research. If I were to highlight a skill this class has provided me with would be critical thinking, how to ask questions and find the answers on your own. This way of learning is just another way in which liberal art institutions like Concordia College seek to benefit their student more than other institutions. We are able to ask questions and seek out different ways to solve them. Even more so, students that took part in this semester peak project were able to conduct research on a given topic and see how our local area is affected by this. Many of us were able to give back to the community in so many ways and help those that are in need. That is also something I love about Concordia College. We aren’t just a school focused on good grades and going through the motion of life, we are an institution focused on seeing problems within our community and reaching out a helping hand. This way of problem solving/helping will be instilled in all of us for years to come.