The Neuroscience Club, led by seniors Aditya Tripathi and Leon Khoo, makes the study of the nervous system and its functions more accessible to students.
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Tripathi and Khoo created the Neuroscience Club last year because they believed the subject was underrepresented in science classes. At the time, Tripathi was taking AP Biology and Khoo was taking AP Psychology, when they noticed neuroscience received minimal coverage in both classes.
“I was taking AP Bio that year, and I heard that [the school] had actually taken neuroscience, the nervous system, out, as one of the topics that AP Bio covers,” Tripathi said.
Since Tripathi and Khoo had been working on their own research about the basics of the nervous system, they also wanted to share their knowledge and expand others’ comprehension and appreciation for neuroscience.
“If we’re doing our own research, we might as well take the opportunity to share what we’re learning with other people,” Khoo said.
The Neuroscience club meets every other Tuesday from 2:30-3:30 in D217. A typical club meeting focuses on one topic of neuroscience, since it is a complex subject. In past meetings, they have discussed learning languages, fatigue, burnout, memory and study methods.
“We want to make neuroscience, which is safe to say, a pretty intimidating topic, into something more engaging for people,” Tripathi said.
During each meeting, Tripathi and Khoo will typically start with a presentation and then move into an activity related to that specific day’s topic, making sure the content is both informative and simple.
“[We] break [neuroscience] down in a way to have presentations that aren’t super wordy,” Khoo said.
They also have guest speakers present their work and show how they got to that spot in their career. Recently, Dr. Dorothy P. Shaefer from UMass Chan Medical School gave a presentation to the club and the whole Science National Honor Society.
“[It’s great] having someone who’s actually working in those fields, actually come in and talk to the people and then have them be able to ask questions about not only their career, but also how they got there,” Khoo said.
Khoo and Tripathi also believe that having guest speakers come in and talk about their path to where they are now is essential for high school students thinking about their own futures.
“How does that path look?” Tripathi said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in that, but I think that’s what we’re trying to get at.”
In the future, they hope to bring the scientific community together and inspire people through their club.
“We want to bring the scientific community in Algonquin together to be more exposed to what [they can] do in your future,” Tripathi said.
