I am sure you are not surprised when I tell you that I feel strongly about teaching electric circuits to neurobiologists in training. It is my conviction that introducing basic electric circuits first as a symbolic language (resistor, capacitor, voltage source) with a simple syntax (Kirchhoff's two rules) is better than teaching electrophysiology sprinkled with electric circuit symbols and diagrams without proper introduction. Of course both approaches are of value. The challenge with starting with circuits and then applying them to electrophysiology is to convince students that they should spend a two hour lecture learning about circuits with little reference to biology or electrophysiology.
I am lucky to get the chance to try my approach in our first year neurobiology graduate course. My teaching is based on the "Electric Circuit" toolbox and the first two chapters of my book Network Neuroscience. Here are the comments I got from the student feedback (unedited, emphasis is mine). It may have helped that there was a massive thunderstorm during that lecture (including a power outage) which nicely illustrated how electric nature is... Background info: I refuse to use slides in lectures for graduate students. My teaching style is a friendly version of the Socratic method which focuses on making sure students stay engaged and understand the material. What I learn from the comments is that some students may need some more structure (perhaps handouts, lecture outlines etc). I will try to incorporate these suggestions into next years teaching. Overall, I feel it worked to start with an electrical engineering lecture. Your thoughts?
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AuthorFlavio. Archives
October 2020
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