Representatives from the Ector County ISD Innovation Department gave Odessa High School students a sample of the neuroscience course to be offered next fall.
The course will be taught by Jodi Fernandez, who currently teaches life science. Fernandez said it is open to seniors at this time.
George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa is the only school in ECISD that now offers neuroscience. It was taught by Bernadette Barragan there for two years. She is now director of educational content for syGlass.
“A lot of students don’t know that this is an opportunity for them, so we just want to shed some light on the program and hopefully they can have a lot of students sign up for next year to be in the course,” Barragan said.
She added that they are now trying to get the course into more schools.
“It’s really important that this course is offered in any school anywhere in Texas, in the country because it gives students the opportunity to learn about things that they’re not exposed to every day,” Barragan said. “They get to learn about the brain. They get to work with scientists and they get to see that even though this course is called neuroscience — I know sometimes it can sound a little scary, a little difficult, maybe a little rigorous — it’s a really fun course. Just like anything, everything’s scary until you learn about it.”
From NTO, Barragan said the course has gotten a lot of exposure. There is now a school in Mesquite that offers neuroscience.
“We’ve had interest from all around the country and in other countries who would like to see this course offered in high schools and postsecondary,” she said.
Barragan said she hopes to see it in all the schools in Ector County. Hays STEAM Academy has a vivarium — an enclosed space for raising animals or plants — with cockroaches and Backyard Brains at the middle school level. Now students can continue that education in high school.
“They’ll start to see the connections as they continue their journey along with educational careers,” Barragan said.
She added that she’s excited about neuroscience coming to OHS because it is a much larger campus than NTO.
“We want to reach as many students as possible. We want as many students that want to sign up for it to sign up. We want this opportunity for anybody who wants to …,” Barragan said.
She added that it was interest on Fernandez’ part that helped bring the course to OHS.
The first year, Barragan said she had 22 students. Last year, it was 46 students. The third year, this year, they have 40-50 students at NTO.
“I’m really excited to see the numbers we get here at OHS next year,” Barragan said.
Kristin Whittenburg, research and innovation strategist for the Innovation Department, said the Education Foundation provided some funding to start the course at Odessa High.
Whittenburg said experts will be brought in to train Fernandez and she’ll receive coaching and mentoring throughout the next year to make sure she has everything she needs to ensure the course is successful.
Fernandez said the seniors are always looking for something that’s exciting.
“Kids don’t necessarily like science, so to get them something that they would actually think is cool or interesting, it allows them to buy in,” Fernandez said.
She added that she’d like the course to draw more students in.
“I”m hoping that the ability to learn and use the technology is attractive and understanding things that happen in brains would be interesting to them since they have one,” Fernandez said.
Whittenburg said the brain is like the final frontier. Students that are learning neuroscience now might solve Alzheimer’s disease, for example.
Fernandez, who has been at OHS for eight years, said the course is geared toward seniors so they have to make sure they have the classes they need to graduate. If students meet certain criteria, they could take it as juniors.
“If they don’t have that, then we’re not going to let them in the class this time just because graduation is going to be … the priority. If we can have fun and learn science along the way, great. If not, you need to graduate,” Fernandez said.
Raeleen Elissetche, a junior at OHS, looked through the VR goggles at a chameleon embryo.
“It was pretty cool because you only see the outside of the chameleon and you get to see how the brain looks; how small it is” and how the arteries and veins look before they are born, Elissetche said.
She added that it would be a lot more interesting for students because they’ll get to use VR.
“I think it will bring a lot of kids’ attention to neuroscience, which is a good thing because not a lot of kids choose neuroscience and that brings more opportunities for the science industry and other opportunities,” Elissetche said.
