NE203 Principles in Neuroscience is a large (150-student) required laboratory course. Because of its large student enrollment and new inquiry-based approach, the course recently went through a major overhaul in 2019. Curriculum switched from performing surgery on rats to using fruit flies. We ran a pilot term in the fall of 2021 and we now present our progress following the incorporation and optimization from the fall terms of 2022 and 2023. Students use Drosophila melanogaster as an experimental animal to ask original questions in systems neuroscience. In the first month, students are introduced to the field of neurogenetics and become familiar with common genetic tools used in fruit flies. The second month, students work on proposing an independent group project by collecting their own pilot data and writing an NIH-style grant proposal. This proposal is ?peer-reviewed? and students are allowed to modify their experimental design and approach with feedback from the instructional team. In the final month, students continue collecting data and formally present their final grant proposal. Thus far, the introduction of the activity monitoring system has more than doubled student interest in utilizing automated behavioral monitoring in their proposals. Supported by the ABLE Roberta Williams Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grant.
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