Behavioral Neuroscience Lab

Fall 2008


Instructor J. Timothy Cannon, Ph.D.

Office  AMH 204

Telephone  941-­4266 (Office)  586-2022 (Home)

Email  cannon@scranton.edu

(http://academic.scranton.edu/faculty/cannon)

TAs
 

This lab is designed to complement and extend the knowledge you will gain in the lecture component of Behavioral Neuroscience. To some extent, the lab can be customized to your interests. Let me know at the beginning of the semester if you have any particular interests that you would like to pursue and we'll see what we can do.


In order to receive appropriate accommodations, students with disabilities must register with the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and provide relevant documentation. Students should contact Mary Ellen Pichiarello (Extension 4039) or Jim Muniz (Extension 4218), 5th floor, St. Thomas Hall, for an appointment.

There will be a number of assignments due throughout the semester and students are responsible for making sure they are completed on time. Satisfactory completion of all assignments and satisfactory performance on the sheep brain practical (see below) will earn you a course grade of "A". Your grade will be reduced for assignments that were not completed (you start out with a grade of 4.67--see lecture syllabus for explanation).


Your first project in this lab will be to master the sheep brain dissection. You are responsible for dissecting your own sheep brain (with the assistance of our sheep brain dissection guide found on the web at http://academic.scranton.edu/department/psych/sheep). This assignment will culminate with a practical during the 3rd week of the semester. The practical will be worth 1 1/3 letter grade (see, however, below) and performance on the sheep brain practical will be assessed as follows:


Percent Correct Grade Change

90%-100% no grade reduction

70%-89% .5 grade reduction

50%-69% 1.0

30%-49% 1.5 grade reduction

0%-29% 2.0 grade reduction


Failure to take the practical on time will result in a 3.0 letter grade deduction.


The remainder of the outline will consist of six additional projects which will be described and/or demonstrated in your lab periods. These assignments will not be graded; however, failure to complete any assignment by the due date will result in a lowering of your lab grade by 1.0.

PROJECT
Must Complete:
Cut and mount brain
Nissl stain slides
Microproject and trace
Low-power microscope and digital photography
Low-power slide on web with links to description of structures
Create an AnyMaze experiment with written description
Must Choose 1 of the following:
Low to high power microscope/web storyboard
Golgi stain and analysis
"Creative" behavioral analysis of existing mouse video recordings


You will be responsible for producing web-based, multimedia lab reports on lab activities. It sounds impressive, and it can be. Not to worry, however, it shouldn't be too challenging.  All lab projects should be linked off of a page in your account called "BNSlab.html".


Because the scheduled lab classes will be used to demonstrate procedures and use of equipment, it will be necessary for students to come in at other times to complete work on their assignments.


Typically, the lab is available during the day, and on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings.  For certain lab activities that involve limited lab resources, however, lab hours will be posted on the bulletin board opposite the door along with sign up sheets for the following week. If the available hours are not satisfactory, it is possible to make other arrangements. In such instances, contact Dr. Cannon, Francis, or Kerri at least one day in advance of the time you wish to use the lab. These guidelines must be followed in order to prevent confusion between both students and other researchers currently using the lab facilities.

Enjoy--Enjoy!!