TRANSCEND Curriculum

Proseminar in Educational Neuroscience (PENS; 6 units over 2 semesters)

  • The primary vehicle for learning will be a full-year course, coordinated by TRANSCEND faculty
  • This course will have two arms:
    1. scientific and technical topics, e.g., learning sciences including cognitive neuroscience relevant to education, STEM education, clinical approaches to neurodiversity, technology based assessment and learning tools, and research methods such as neuroimaging, statistics and AI-ML.
    2. professional development and “soft skills”, e.g., ethics, the open science framework/reproducibility, team science, project management, leadership, teaching/mentoring, communications, outreach, and STEM careers. Leaders and stakeholders from Partner Organizations will be asked to present in their area of expertise or on their personal journeys.
  • The primary vehicle for research and team science experience will be the year-long Challenge Team research project built into this course. (see below)

Challenge Team Project

Talk Series & BrownBags

  • This requirement replaces the formerly-required weekly TalkShop BrownBag, which is being reformatted to a Language Sciences BrownBag.
  • Trainees will be required to attend at least 6 Talk Series/BrownBag sessions per semester; we will provide you with a list of options to choose from, and will link them here at a later date.
  • After each session, you will need to submit a form summarizing the session you attended. That form will be linked here at a later date.

External Workshops

  • Trainees will be encouraged to apply to at least one course per year, either on methods (e.g., AFNI bootcamp, Neuromatch Academy, CIME workshop, MSRI, etc.) or management skills (e.g., training as a Team Coach after they complete the 1st year Challenge Team or in Agile project management workshops/training programs designed by Cornell University etc)
  • Travel funds are budgeted for all trainees for every year at UConn.

Internships and International Experiences

  • We will strongly encourage trainees to take internship opportunities, which provide a critical tool for expanding the STEM workforce in non-academic institutions.
  • We have assembled connections to a wide array of 38 partners (12 international), where most have agreed to provide internships.
  • Internships will strengthen ongoing and new relationships with industry, NPOs and other sectors.

WISHfest/Annual Showcase

  • Trainees will help plan the Annual Showcase, an event in the Spring that brings together TRANSCEND program members, Advisors, Partner Organizations, and community stakeholders. The Annual Showcase is part of a large-scale event, WISHfest, which unites members of UConn Waterbury, Waterbury Public Schools, and the City of Waterbury with exciting keynote speakers, informative discussions, and an outreach fair.
  • You can see photos of previous WISHfest events in our Gallery.