This is a proposal to provide equipment for an undergraduate neurobiology course and for undergraduate independent research involving neurobiology techniques. Each year the laboratory course will impact 12 students, with at least 2 more students able to use the equipment for independent research. An additional 171 students enrolled in other courses will also benefit through the equipment being used in laboratory exercises or lecture demonstrations. The course helps fill a significant gap in the undergraduate education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in that there are no laboratory courses devoted to the rapidly growing area of neuroscience. The proposed course will compliment the lecture course, Foundations in Neurobiology (BCMB 415), currently being taught by the PI and Co-PI. The proposed laboratory course is an intensive semester-long analysis of the neural circuitry controlling feeding behavior in the snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. During the course, students will be exposed to a variety of neuroanatomical and electrophysiological techniques while they learn basic principles associated with the field of neurobiology. In addition to completing 5 formal exercises, students will also be given the opportunity to conduct their own hypothesis-driven experiments. Required written reports and an oral presentation of the results of their independent project will provide students with further training necessary for advancing in the field of neuroscience. Finally, lab exercises will be disseminated electronically via the development of a neurobiology laboratory page accessible via the World Wide Web.
