Admittedly, the truly honest answer is "Scientists don't really know." But there are a lot of snippets we do know! From the role of hippocampus structures in pattern separation and pattern completion, to the fMRI evidence for reactivation, to tips about how to study most effectively, this class will explore how the nervous system stores and accesses information. Come prepared to talk about cells, but also to consider the computational basis of human cognition.

Admittedly, the truly honest answer is "Scientists don't really know." But there are a lot of snippets we do know! From the role of hippocampus structures in pattern separation and pattern completion, to the fMRI evidence for reactivation, to tips about how to study most effectively, this class will explore how the nervous system stores and accesses information. Come prepared to talk about cells, but also to consider the computational basis of human cognition.

Why do some things taste good and some things taste bad? Why are all the delicious things "bad for you"? How does your brain know what food tastes like? Why are some people picky about tastes, and some people aren't? Can you change the way your taste buds work? (Hint: Yes, and we will try it!) In this class, we'll learn about how the sense of taste works, from your tongue and nose to your brain. We'll measure whether we are "super-tasters," and we'll experiment with miracle berry, a fruit that changes how your taste buds work, and makes sour things taste sweet!

Have you ever wanted to learn programming, but just found it too intimidating? Are the only languages you know ones that involve opening your mouth and speaking? Well, in this class you'll learn a different way to communicate with your hands - through programming! (It's nowhere near as scary as it looks.) In this class, you'll learn about MATLAB, a technical computing language that can be used in many different ways: data analysis, scripting, object-oriented programming, image processing, app development, and more... ... but we'll be going the slightly less scientific route, and making text-based games and doing other fun projects. I'll be teaching you how to get started with MATLAB and Octave, and also answering any questions you might have about programming, computer science, or engineering in general. :)

Admittedly, the truly honest answer is "Scientists don't really know." But there are a lot of snippets we do know! From the role of hippocampus structures in pattern separation and pattern completion, to the fMRI evidence for reactivation, to tips about how to study most effectively, this class will explore how the nervous system stores and accesses information. Come prepared to talk about cells, but also to consider the computational basis of human cognition.

Why do some things taste good and some things taste bad? Why are all the delicious things "bad for you"? How does your brain know what food tastes like? Why are some people picky about tastes, and some people aren't? Can you change the way your taste buds work? (Hint: Yes, and we will try it!) In this class, we'll learn about how the sense of taste works, from your tongue and nose to your brain. We'll measure whether we are "super-tasters," and we'll experiment with miracle berry, a fruit that changes how your taste buds work, and makes sour things taste sweet!

Admittedly, the truly honest answer is "Scientists don't really know." But there are a lot of snippets we do know! From the role of hippocampus structures in pattern separation and pattern completion, to the fMRI evidence for reactivation, to tips about how to study most effectively, this class will explore how the nervous system stores and accesses information. Come prepared to talk about cells, but also to consider the computational basis of human cognition.

Why do some things taste good and some things taste bad? Why are all the delicious things "bad for you"? How does your brain know what food tastes like? Why are some people picky about tastes, and some people aren't? Can you change the way your taste buds work? (Hint: Yes, and we will try it!) In this class, we'll learn about how the sense of taste works, from your tongue and nose to your brain. We'll measure whether we are "super-tasters," and we'll experiment with miracle berry, a fruit that changes how your taste buds work, and makes sour things taste sweet!

Admittedly, the truly honest answer is "Scientists don't really know." But there are a lot of snippets we do know! From the role of hippocampus structures in pattern separation and pattern completion, to the fMRI evidence for reactivation, to tips about how to study most effectively, this class will explore how the nervous system stores and accesses information. Come prepared to talk about cells, but also to consider the computational basis of human cognition.

Statistics is the science of finding reliable patterns in big messy piles of data. Are guys better than girls at math? Do biology majors earn more money after graduating? Do Splash students come from larger families than the national average? This class will talk about techniques to answer all of these questions - and more!

Make a mini chocolate cake in the microwave!

How do brain cells work? What is up with drugs that affect the nervous system? When people say things like, "Love is just a chemical reaction in your brain," what do they mean? Are they right?

A whirlwind tour of cellular-level neuroscience. We'll talk about synapses, action potentials, glutamate, GABA, dopamine, and serotonin. We'll talk about poisons, medications, and recreational drugs, and link their neuronal effects to the experiences people report. We'll also talk a bit about learning, memory, reward, and emotions, and what's going on in the brain when these things happen.

Learn to make brightly-colored bracelets in stripes and criss-cross patterns.

Just how *do* your eyes and brain work? Light bounces off of stuff and into your eyes... and then what? This class will explore the biology and psychology of visual perception.

You probably know that you see things when light enters your eyes and hits the retina. But then what? How does your brain make sense of that? Why do we see color? Why can't we see in the dark? How come if you look at a light you see spots afterwards? We can ask similar questions about other senses (How come a piano and a guitar playing the same note still sound different? How do you make a musical instrument?) and answer them with hands-on investigations and demos (Why do some people like broccoli and others hate it?).

How do scientists measure brain activity? One way is by recording the electrical signals generated by the brain. This class will discuss why your brain produces electrical activity, and include an opportunity to measure your own brain waves.

In this class, we will play a giant game of tag called "Predator - Prey." Some students will be predators like eagles, some will be prey, like rabbits. All students will try to find enough food and water, avoid disease and pollution, find a mate. Some students will hunt. Others will be hunted. This game will help you learn about food webs, and give you a chance to run around during Splash! We will play outside, so make sure you wear warm clothes!

For most of us, sight is very very easy. We look at something, we know what color, shape, and size it is, and where it's located in space. How does our brain extract all this information? In this class, we'll look at a number of cases where vision fails (also known as optical illusions). What do these illusions tell us about how vision is handled in the brain?

Is it going to rain? Should I get a flu shot? Is climate change for real? For small questions as well as big ones, many of our decisions require making sense of uncertainty. In this course, we'll go through the fundamentals of core statistical concepts while keeping an eye on how these concepts are used--and misused--in common situations. The technical material, supplemented with real world examples, will start off with basic probability an move into hypothesis testing and linear regression. Students will gain a solid intuition of both rigorous statistical concepts and how these concepts are and should be applied to actual decision-making.

Intro to nervous system signals, anatomy, and some systems neuroscience.

Light, eyes, retinas.

From "pixels" to objects - how we identify things in our environments.

Ears, eardrums, identifying sounds, making sense of a soundscape.

What is memory? How might it work? How does information go "into" memory, and how do we get it back "out"? We'll also talk about fMRI and other imaging techniques.

What is memory? How might it work? How does information go "into" memory, and how do we get it back "out"? We'll also talk about fMRI and other imaging techniques.

So what does your brain actually *do*? This class will examine the basic properties of the nerve cells that make up your brain - how they take in, process, and output information.

It's been clear for decades that learning has to involve some sort of changes within the brain. What sort of changes? Where? How might those happen? This class will tackle those questions, using evidence from psychology, neuroimaging, cellular biology, and more.

We trust our eyes to tell us the truth about the world. But, it turns out out that your eyes and brain take lots of shortcuts and guesses in order to make sense of visual information. In this class, we'll look at optical illusions and discuss how they reveal a "trick" of the brain.

How vision works! We'll start with light entering the eye, and get at least to edge-detecting neurons, and possibly to object recognition.

Every year, I try to teach classes on the workings of the brain, and every year, it devolves into "neuroscience free-for-all". This year, I'm planning ahead! So, bring your questions on how the brain works, anything from "How do we remember things?" to "Why do you sometimes fail to see things that are right there?" to "What does Prozac do, anyway?" We'll tackle anything.

These cells are the fundamental information-handling unit in your nervous system. We'll talk about basic neuron structure, the workings of the action potential, and some of the chemicals and neurotransmitters that make the system go. This may be a bit basic for students with a strong biology background.

Thought, learning, perception, reasoning, and language are all cognitive abilities powered by the soft squishy gray stuff inside our skulls. After a quick-and-dirty introduction to neurons and the brain, we'll examine several aspects of human cognition and look at the neurophysiology that underlies them. We'll also discuss methods used to study these areas, read some current research, and navigate the wilds of the science library. A high-school level biology course is a recommend prerequisite for this; we'll be talking about neurons and brain systems, and basic biology understanding will be assumed.

How do your ears and brain work together to allow you to hear things? Stuff around you makes sounds (whatever ...

(Almost) everybody remembers things. Your first day of kindergarten. What you had for lunch today. The capital of the United ...

What goes on in your nose and tongue and brain that make some foods taste delicious, and some substances smell ...

Make a small, handwoven bag. Learn about tweeds and other weaving textures.

Have you ever wondered what a brain actually looks like? What's the hippocampus? Amygdala? Frontal lobe? Corpus callosum? We'll dissect ...