Description

The Connectomes for Neuroscience Education and Learning (CUNEL) project seeks to provide students with access to course-based research experiences in connectomics, the burgeoning subfield of neurobiology that seeks to systematically annotate and analyze all the neurons and synaptic connections in a nervous system. While it is well understood that students benefit from the incorporation of authentic research experiences into undergraduate curricula, the availability of these experiences may be limited by infrastructure, resources, and difficulty of implementation. The CUNEL project addresses these barriers by leveraging the publicly available Female Adult Fly Brain (FAFB) dataset and Collaborative Annotation Toolkit for Massive Amounts of Image Data (CATMAID) software platform, which is accessible through a web browser with minimal computing hardware requirements.

We are currently developing and refining lab protocols, curriculum, instructor support tools, and assessment tools that make use of FAFB/CUNEL. These tools have already been implemented and assessed at five institutions, which include R1, public comprehensive, and private undergraduate institutions. We are currently seeking additional network members to implement and provide feedback on our existing instructional materials and to collaborate on development of additional materials.

Ways to learn more:

• Check out our poster, "Connectomics in the classroom: Introducing students to neuroscientific principles using the Drosophila Female Adult Fly Brain electron microscopy data set" that is included with this publication. 

Ways to get involved:

• Contact any of the co-PI group members below to learn more about CUNEL and to hear about ways to get involved.
  • Andrew Bellemer
  • Ken Colodner
  • Divya Sitaraman

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