Your course:
Your brain weighs about three pounds—and somehow generates memory, desire, fear, humor, belief, habit, love, and the feeling that you are you. In this course, that miracle is taken apart and rebuilt in real time. Through lab-style investigation, hands-on experiments, and direct encounters with actual brains, You and Your Brain exposes how folds of tissue become thought, how chemistry turns into behavior, and how subtle biological shifts can alter a life’s trajectory. Expect surprises, revelations, and moments that permanently change how you understand your own mind—because once you see how the brain actually works, you can’t unsee it.
This is not a lecture course you sit through. It’s an immersive exploration that invites you inside the machinery of perception, learning, emotion, and identity. You’ll handle real brains, trace neural “highways,” observe how signals move, test how learning happens, and examine what occurs when systems misfire. Along the way, you’ll encounter some of the most fascinating questions in neuroscience: Why do we learn the way we do? How do hormones shape who we become? What distinguishes a healthy brain from one in distress—and what does “successful aging” actually mean?
Across the week, the course unfolds like a guided tour through the brain’s inner workings—beginning with its physical structure and accelerating into the forces that animate it. You’ll trace the brain’s information highways, handle preserved specimens, and participate in a sheep brain dissection that transforms abstract diagrams into unforgettable reality. As you move deeper, electrical signals, synapses, reflexes, and neurochemistry come into focus, revealing how sensation, action, and decision emerge from microscopic events.
The course then pivots toward what the brain does over time: how it learns, how hormones sculpt development and behavior, and how experience leaves physical traces in neural tissue. You’ll collect and interpret real data, compare brains shaped by different learning histories, and explore how biology and environment interact across the lifespan. The week culminates with a clear-eyed look at neurological disruption and resilience—from schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease to the science of successful aging—offering a powerful, human perspective on what happens when the brain’s systems falter, adapt, or endure.
Throughout, the emphasis is on discovery rather than memorization. You will test ideas, examine evidence, and leave with a visceral understanding of the organ that governs everything you think, feel, and do.
Highlights:
- Trace the brain’s hidden architecture as you map how information moves through neural “freeways,” discovering why structure matters as much as chemistry
- Watch physiology come alive as you explore how neurons communicate, how reflexes fire in milliseconds, and how drugs alter perception, mood, and behavior
- Step into the role of researcher as you collect and analyze real data—testing learning in yourselves and examining biological evidence from animals that learned in different ways
- Uncover how hormones sculpt the brain across a lifetime, shaping development, behavior, and identity from early differentiation through adulthood
- Confront the brain under pressure by examining neurological and psychiatric conditions—then zoom out to explore what neuroscience reveals about resilience, adaptation, and successful aging
You and Your Brain is an immersive exploration of how a three-pound organ produces thought, emotion, learning, and identity. Through hands-on labs, real data, and direct encounters with brains, the course reveals how structure becomes experience—and how small biological changes can have profound consequences. You’ll leave seeing your own mind with new clarity, curiosity, and awe.
You'll walk away with:
- A vivid, working mental map of how the brain is organized, how information flows, and why that organization matters for everything from movement to memory
- A practical understanding of how learning actually happens in the brain—grounded in data you’ve helped generate and interpret yourself
- New insight into how hormones influence brain development, behavior, and long-term health, illuminating connections between biology and lived experience
- A clearer, more nuanced understanding of brain disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s—and what distinguishes pathology from healthy variation
- A fresh perspective on aging that emphasizes plasticity, adaptation, and what it really means to keep a brain thriving over time
This course is ideal for:
- People who want to decode the brain patterns behind conditions they’ve seen up close in family, friends, or themselves—and finally understand what’s biological, what’s changeable, and what’s misunderstood
- Science-curious minds (from fascinated amateurs to full-blown geeks) who light up at the chance to see how real brains work—structurally, chemically, and behaviorally
- Innovators and future founders drawn to the raw materials of neuroscience: learning, hormones, drugs, aging, and the fragile line between health and disease
- Learners who want more than facts—who want to touch, test, dissect, observe, and experiment their way into genuine understanding
- Anyone who’s ever wondered how a three-pound organ can shape personality, memory, illness, resilience, and identity—and wants answers grounded in evidence, not myth
Activity level: Classroom-based learning combined with hands-on lab work. Activities include periods of standing, close observation, collaborative experiments, and optional participation in anatomical dissection, with proximity to preserved biological specimens and related laboratory chemicals.
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