Students' understanding of how robotic light sensors work is reinforced in a design challenge involving LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and light sensors. Working in pairs, students program LEGO robots to follow a flashlight as its light beam moves around. Students practice and learn programming skills and logic design in parallel. They see how robots take input from light sensors and use it to make decisions to move, similar to the human sense of sight. Students also see how they perform the steps of the engineering design process in the course of designing and testing to achieve a successful program. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post quizzes are provided.

Advances in cognitive science have resolved, clarified, and sometimes complicated some of the great questions of Western philosophy: what is the structure of the world and how do we come to know it; does everyone represent the world the same way; what is the best way for us to act in the world. Specific topics include color, objects, number, categories, similarity, inductive inference, space, time, causality, reasoning, decision-making, morality and consciousness. Readings and discussion include a brief philosophical history of each topic and focus on advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, computation, neuroscience, and related fields. At least one subject in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, or artificial intelligence is required. An additional project is required for graduate credit.

In this edition of "Grey Matters," Aniruddh Patel, of the Neurosciences Institute, discusses what music can teach us about the brain, and what brain science, in turn, can reveal about music. (51 minutes)

During the past decade, there have been dramatic advancements in the brain and cognitive sciences. For the first time, understanding how the brain works has become a scientifically achievable goal. In this new lecture series, Grey Matters: Molecules to Mind, San Diego's leading Neuroscientists explore the human brain. The first lecture in this series addresses an issue that has often been absent in these discussions: what role do stem cells play in development of the brain? (59 minutes)

Students learn about the anatomy of the ear and how the ears work as a sound sensor. Ear anatomy parts and structures are explained in detail, as well as how sound is transmitted mechanically and then electrically through them to the brain. Students use LEGO® robots with sound sensors to measure sound intensities, learning how the NXT brick (computer) converts the intensity of sound measured by the sensor input into a number that transmits to a screen. They build on their experiences from the previous activities and establish a rich understanding of the sound sensor and its relationship to the TaskBot's computer.

This lesson highlights the similarities between human sensors and their engineering counterparts. Taking this approach enables students to view the human body as a system, that is, from the perspective of an engineer. Humans have recreated most human sensors in robots – eyes, ears and sensors for temperature, touch and smell. The lesson inculdes a PowerPoint file that is programmed to run a Jeopardy-style game as a fun assessment tool.

Students learn more about how light sensors work, reinforcing their similarities to the human sense of sight. They look at the light sensing process incoming light converted to electrical signals sent to the brain through the human eye anatomy as well as human-made electrical light sensors. A mini-activity, which uses LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT intelligent bricks and light sensors gives students a chance to investigate how light sensors function in preparation for the associated activity involving the light sensors and taskbots. A PowerPoint® presentation explains stimulus-to-response pathways, sensor fundamentals, and details about the LEGO light sensor, including its two modes of gathering data and what its numerical value readings mean. Students take pre/post quizzes and watch a short online video. This lesson and its associated activity enable students to gain a deeper understanding of how robots can take sensor input and use it to make decisions via programming.

Students learn about how sound sensors work, reinforcing their similarities to the human sense of hearing. They look at the hearing process sound waves converted to electrical signals sent to the brain through human ear anatomy as well as sound sensors. A mini-activity, which uses LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT intelligent bricks and sound sensors gives students a chance to experiment with the sound sensors in preparation for the associated activity involving the sound sensors and taskbots. A PowerPoint® presentation explains stimulus-to-response pathways, sensor fundamentals, the unit of decibels, and details about the LEGO sound sensor, including how readings are displayed and its three modes of programming sound input. Students take pre/post quizzes and watch a short online video. This lesson and its associated activity enable students to appreciate how robots can take sensor input and use it to make decisions to via programming.

Students learn about how touch sensors work, while reinforcing their similarities to the human sense of touch. They look at human senses and their electronic imitators, with special focus on the nervous system, skin and touch sensors. A PowerPoint® presentation explains stimulus-to-response pathways, how touch sensors are made and work, and then gives students a chance to handle and get familiar with the LEGO touch sensor, including programming LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots to use touch sensor input to play music. Students take pre/post quizzes and watch a short online video. The mini-activities prepare students for the associated activity. This lesson and its associated activity enables students to appreciate how robots can take input from sensors, and use that to make decisions to move.

Students learn about how ultrasonic sensors work, reinforcing the connection between this sensor and how humans, bats and dolphins estimate distance. They learn the echolocation process sound waves transmitted, bounced back and received, with the time difference used to calculate the distance of objects. Two mini-activities, which use LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and ultrasonic sensors, give students a chance to experiment with ultrasonic sensors in preparation for the associated activity. A PowerPoint® presentation explains stimulus-to-response pathways, sensor fundamentals, and details about the LEGO ultrasonic sensor. Pre/post quizzes are provided. This lesson and its associated activity enable students to gain a deeper understanding of how robots can take sensor input and use it to make decisions via programming.

Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky presents the course Human Behavioral Biology. He begins by explaining the premise of the course and how he aims to avoid categorical thinking. (March 29, 2010)

Human behavioral biology examines traits such as human sexual behavior, emotions memory, perception, and language from a biological perspective. It seeks to identify how human behavior is influenced by brain, sensory, hormone, fetal development and other biological influences.

Students are provided with a rigorous background in human "sensors" (including information on the main five senses, sensor anatomies, and nervous system process) and their engineering equivalents, setting the stage for three associated activities involving sound sensors on LEGO® robots. As they learn how robots receive input from sensors, transmit signals and make decisions about how to move, students reinforce their understanding of the human body's sensory process.

ILLUMINE community platform (https://illumine.upf.edu/) fosters a community of teachers based around evidence-based teaching practices.

The platform is an interactive, online resource for educators. It enables teachers to create, reuse (copy, share, customise) research lessons and the learning activities within such research lessons. The research lessons functionality scaffolds teacher inquiry processes.

It also enables teachers to learn about evidence-based teaching strategies (retrieval practice, distributed practice, reframing, spaced learning), access resources for applying the strategies with students, get inspiration from the experiences of teaching peers.

Additionally, the website hosts or links to all project outputs (Workshop Toolkit, Digital Handbook, Mini-MOOC on the science of learning, Classroom materials, etc.), describes the project and its objectives, and contains the news updates on project activities.

ILLUMINE Evidence-based Teaching Practices Handbook is an open educational resource (OER). It compiles, from the workshops, evidence-based practices, technological tools facilitating their usage, science of learning theory underlying them, and case studies generated by teachers. It’s a practical resource that support educators in improving their teaching practices.

There are 10 stress mindset posters per partner language (60 posters in total) to reinforce learning from the research lessons related to stress management.

Mental health & wellbeing was a topic that emerged from the selection of strategies by participating teachers. In each country this was a topic that generated a lot of interest and teachers were eager to explore it. Thus, the project team created additional resources to support the development of research lessons for this strategy – such as stress mindset videos to teach stress mindsets in each partner language and classroom posters to reinforce the messages from the lessons throughout the school year.

ILLUMINE Teacher Professional Development Toolkit includes a guide and materials for running a 20-hour ILLUMINE teacher professional development course.
It provides summaries of conducted workshops for primary school (Spain, Serbia), secondary and vocational schools (Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Portugal), and a mix of school levels (Estonia).
The ILLUMINE training course involves having educators design and run their own research lessons to improve their teaching practices. Strategies such as retrieval practice, distributed practice, and cognitive reappraisal (reframing of stress) are introduced.

The ILLUMINE YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@illumineproject) hosts videos for classroom use (stress mindsets) and video case studies presented by teachers from each of the partner countries (Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Estonia).

There are 9 video case studies presented by teachers and 12 stress mindset videos (2 in each partner language) created to support the conceptual replication of an evidence-based practice (Stanford research study).

ILLUMINE helps school teachers design more effective learning experiences by having teachers conduct research lessons and share their findings with the educational community. ILLUMINE’s teacher inquiry grounded approach aims to increase teacher use of evidence-based strategies with technology, understanding of science of learning theory (cognitive neuroscience), and collaboration with peers.

ILLUMINE mini-MOOC: The Science of Learning for Teachers. The course provides an introduction to Science of Learning Theory for educators. There are 5 videos (40 min total), short reflection activities and quizzes.

The mini-MOOC is a free, open, online course that was created to support blended and asynchronous learning of the science of learning. The mini-MOOC compliments the ILLUMINE teacher professional development course and provides support to instructors that have a limited background in the Science of Learning.

https://tidex.upf.edu/courses/course-v1:Illumine+LLUM+2021/about

With a focus on the creation of functional prototypes and practicing real magical crafts, this class combines theatrical illusion, game design, sleight of hand, machine learning, camouflage, and neuroscience to explore how ideas from ancient magic and modern stage illusion can inform cutting edge technology.

The last ten years have witnessed increasing awareness of questionable research practices (QRPs) in the life sciences, including p-hacking, HARKing, lack of replication, publication bias, low statistical power and lack of data sharing (see Figure 1). Concerns about such behaviours have been raised repeatedly for over half a century but the incentive structure of academia has not changed to address them. Despite the complex motivations that drive academia, many QRPs stem from the simple fact that the incentives which offer success to individual scientists conflict with what is best for science. On the one hand are a set of gold standards that centuries of the scientific method have proven to be crucial for discovery: rigour, reproducibility, and transparency. On the other hand are a set of opposing principles born out of the academic career model: the drive to produce novel and striking results, the importance of confirming prior expectations, and the need to protect research interests from competitors. Within a culture that pressures scientists to produce rather than discover, the outcome is a biased and impoverished science in which most published results are either unconfirmed genuine discoveries or unchallenged fallacies. This observation implies no moral judgement of scientists, who are as much victims of this system as they are perpetrators.