Paul Grobstein - US grants

The research outlined in this proposal is designed to provide new information about neuronal organization which underlies the production of movements directed toward external stimuli. In the frog, apparently identical prey orienting movements can be triggered either visually or tactually, suggesting that visual and tactile signals converge somewhere on or prior to the circuitry responsible for generating the motoneuron discharge patterns which underly orienting movements. Neither of the two primary sensory areas in the midbrain known to be involved in orienting are a critical site of polymodal convergence. Lesions of the optic tectum abolish visual orienting while sparing tactile responsiveness; lesions of the lateral torus semicircularis abolish tactile while sparing visual responsiveness. Hence, an essential convergence, if it exists, must occur subsequent to these structures. In the course of recent studies on the organization of tectofugal pathways involved in visual orienting, we have made preliminary observations indicating that, in contrast to tectal lesions, more caudally located lesions produce visual and tactile deficits which are remarkably similar. The character of the deficits suggests a disturbance in spatial localization rather than in movement pattern. These and related findings suggest that there may be an essential convergence of visual and tactile signals in the ventral midbrain and that this convergence occurs not on the circuitry generating movement patterns but rather at an earlier processing stage in which a signal related to spatial location in some more generalized coordinate frame is created. The studies proposed here are directed primarily at confirming and extending the preliminary lesion observations. A second set of neuroanatomical studies will be undertaken to determine whether tectal and lateral toral efferents converge on common target structures. Finally, we will initiate electrophysiological studies in an effort to determine whether there is an effective convergence of visual and tactile information in a likely ventral midbrain structure, the nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasiculus.

Building Bridges: Science Education Reform at Bryn Mawr College is an institutionwide effort at science teaching reform in a liberal arts setting. It addresses the national need to provide consistently effective models for science and mathematics teaching at a time when students come with increasingly varying pre-college preparation. The program builds upon a wide array of efforts previously undertaken at Bryn Mawr, with the support of various private and federal funding sources, and is informed by national efforts in undergraduate science education reform. Building Bridges seeks: to improve the teaching of math and science through efforts that bring together scientists, humanists and social scientists; to infuse the inquiry-based and cooperative pedagogical methods of the teacher education program into math/science teaching; and to encourage greater interaction among college faculty members, precollege teachers, and students. Specific activities will include: workshops for faculty members teaching in a new cross-disciplinary College Seminar program, required of all undergraduates; a discussion series on science pedagogy for faculty members, graduate students, and precollege teachers; support for the development of courses incorporating new pedagogical approaches, the revision of introductory science courses, and the development of courses bridging math/science and teacher education; and a peer tutoring program for math and science students. The results of Building Bridges will be evaluated both quantitatively, in terms of the extent of faculty participation in the project, and qualitatively, through an existing student course evaluation program and an assessment of the impact on faculty/student attitudes toward and sense of competence in science. The work undertaken through Building Bridges will be institutionalized at the end of the three-year grant period, and its results disseminated through Serendip, a College Web site, and through presentations at national science and science education meetings.