The goal of our SEPA project is to provide children with learning experiences that will establish the foundation for broad, socially connected understanding of how the brain works and how brain functioning relates to behavior. To develop our curriculum, we have taken advantage of the environment and resources of the Shriver Center, a center for interdisciplinary scientific research, training, and clinical service in mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Our project may be unique in that there is an explicit focus on illustrating the interactions among and integration of disparate scientific disciplines (neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, genetics, etc.) that are necessary to understand scientific problems that none could understand alone. The project is also unique in that the curriculum covers typical and atypical development. By doing this, we hope to teach children that variations in development are normal and determined by understandable or potentially understandable interactions between genes, brain development, and environment. During Phase I of this project, our curriculum was developed, field tested, and extensively revised based on field-test results. In Phase II, we plan to develop, evaluate, and validate models of effective curriculum dissemination in schools and other educational settings. To this end, we will survey various informants (e.g., teachers, educational administrators, other SEPA project directors, etc.) to identify variables relevant to curriculum acceptability. We will also explore ways in which modern information technology can be used to support enhanced dissemination efforts. Subsequently, we will field-test different approaches to disseminating the curriculum.
