Me, my brain and I: a framework for neuroscience curriculum fostering research-practice partnership between scientists and educators

Students' school requirements and learning activities engage many different cognitive processes, including as language processing, memory, learning, attention, reasoning, decision making, and social interaction. However, student rarely learn about these cognitive processes or the brain mechanisms underlying them, and therefore lack critical understanding about they themselves operate. Here, we describe a novel neuroscience curriculum, developed through a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) between neuroscientists and educators, aimed at allowing students to learn about their own brain and cognitive abilities and engage in authentic neuroscientific inquiry. The curriculum is organized around three pillars: Learn Neuroscience – Experience Neuroscience – Contribute to Neuroscience. These are designed to optimize relevance, student engagement and interactive hands-on experience. In particular, by incorporating genuine neuroscientific research as part of the program, students are offered a front-row seat to the scientific process using cutting-edge neurotechnology and gain first-hand experience with the challenges and excitements of scientific inquiry.