Novel + Dynamic Curriculum — MBE
Building Educational Content & Curriculum
Mind Brain Education (MBE)
Collaborate. In a focused set of workshops, mbSci’s proposed program – Mind-Brain Education (MBE) – aims to engage leading scientists, scholars and multimedia experts in workshops to create new and more effective educational tools.
MBE intends to cultivate exciting new perspectives on the human condition in education, curricula and media experiences and is inspired by advances in scientific consciousness studies, brain research and education.
MBE curriculum & programs will be developed for:
- Scientists and scholars
- Medical and business professionals
- Students, parents and the general educated public
- Life-long learners of all ages
The Need
Large universities often lack the kind of personal learning and teaching that helped to humanize college education in small,traditional colleges. Science and technology students are often unaware of the humanities and the arts. Students in the humanities sometimes develop “science phobia,” thinking science is something for what’s ‘out there.’
Our Approach
The study of consciousness science offers exciting new perspectives on the human condition and an interdisciplinary perspective. The human mind and brain are mysterious and fascinating frontiers to explore. We can all be brain scientists. We are our own experiments! We plan to create inspired learning experiences that integrate passions and interests of individuals and groups.
No Brain Left Behind
Consciousness is humanizing, and MBE aims to develop teaching materials and learning labs that are accurate, relevant to students’ lives, compelling and entertaining.
Mind Brain Education (MBE) generally aims to:
- Inspire & support mind-brain studies in universities, high schools & middle schools
- Create web outreach for mind-brain studies & curriculum
- Develop multi-media mind-brain curriculum, content and programs for the general public
Our Goals
- Facilitate workshops to create targeted education models
- Design experiential, interdisciplinary & entertaining content, programs & curricula
- Integrate state-of-the-art media, talent and creative expertise
- Develop research-based, scientific AND intuitive knowledge approaches
- Inform content using summative and formative research
- Build alliances with educational foundations and influencers to ensure that
- educators have access to mbSci programs and materials
- Involve teachers in curriculum development and testing
- Demonstrate the relevance of mind brain sciences to our lives
- Elicit and invite students’ thoughts, inquiry and ideas
- Test and revise every teaching unit under the supervision of Dr. James Catterall
Capturing Attention + Inspiring Knowledge about Mind Brain Sciences
MBE will:
- Originate a system of planning, research, production, and evaluation with leading scientists and scholars in collaboration with innovators in specialized creative and media fields
- Develop dynamic, experiential and resonant MBSci education curricula and multi-media content based on high credibility science directly relevant to our human experience
- Mobilize educational partners: For middle and high schools, we aim to produce experiential curriculum that supports and expands upon existing science and humanities programs
- Distribute curriculum and materials via existing portals and IT platforms in colleges and universities
- Design and Host its own e-Learning Labs portal: MindBrainNETWORK
Making the Case for e-Learning Courses & Curriculum
Online education is growing at an unprecedented rate -an estimated 3 million students are currently enrolled in an online class.
- Online learning is growing at an annual rate of 41% (Primary Research Group,2002; Shaer, 2007)
- In 2008, over 20% of postsecondary students were enrolled in at least one distance learning course; this comes to 4,277,000 students (National Center forEducation Statistics, 2011)
For working adults, online courses have expanded educational opportunities to thosewho don’t have easy access to college programs:
- More than half of the U.S. institutions of higher learning offer courses throughsome forms of Internet-based technology (Evans and Haase, 2001; Lee et al.,2007; Shaer, 2007)
- 43% of colleges that offer face-to-face business degree programs also offer onlinebusiness programs (Allen and Seaman, 2005)
- Major corporations have added e-learning to train employees. These include technologycompanies like Cisco, IBM and Dell, as well as service corporations such as MetLife.
Working Team
MBE Development Committee
Joseph LeDoux, PhD, Center for Neural Science, NYU, author, The Emotional Brain
James Catterall, PhD, Centers for Research on Creativity; Professor Emeritus. UCLA Education & Information Studies Department
Moran Cerf, PhD, Caltech, UCLA, Center for Neural Science, NYU, AFI Script Consultant
Bernard Baars, The Neurosciences Institute, author, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness
Gustav Bernroider, Department of Neuroimmunology, University of Salzburg
Professor Tonietta A. Walters, is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy for Broward College, has a Specialized M.A. in Art and Philosophy of Mind/Cognitive Science from Florida International University and is completing an extramural PhD in Philosophy at Sofia University, Bulgaria.