Several endeavors connect Thiel neuroscience majors with area scholastic students

Posted December 15, 2017 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Thiel College neuroscience majors Nathaniel Hill ’20, Joelle Reitz ’19 and Evan Youker ’18 and Professor of Neuroscience and Department Chair Greg Butcher, Ph.D., took a break during finals week to provide students from Greenville School District’s East Elementary an in-depth look at the brain.

The group guided sixth-graders through a sheep brain dissection. Sixth-grade science teacher Maile Woods said that this was the first time she’s provided this experience to her students and that it was a big hit.

“The students loved the experience and were talking all about it,” she said.

For many of the sixth graders, the lesson in neuroanatomy built on material introduced to them by other Thiel students during fourth and fifth grade as part of a citizenship project available through the Department of Neuroscience. This event caps off a busy fall for neuroscience students who have now worked with over 200 students and parents in the Greenville area. Hill and his brother, Isaiah ’20, visited a special education class at Greenville High School in November. Starting in October, neuroscience students worked with the third grade at Hempfield Elementary on a brain art project. The sculptures created by the third graders were recently on display in the College’s Weyers-Sampson Art Gallery.