About the Host
Angel Kaur
Associate Prof of Neuroscience, UNC Asheville
Higher Ed Innovator & Faculty Developer
Artist & Graphic Designer
I’m engaged in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with a focus on high impact practices in undergraduate STEM education in a liberal arts environment. I am particularly interested in pedagogical innovation to increase student engagement and learning. My disciplinary background is in cell and molecular Neuroscience and my course offerings center on that field of study.
I often use interdisciplinary course materials, innovative pedagogies, and game-based learning to enhance student engagement and learning of course content. I also use project-based learning approaches to build undergraduate science literacy and science communication skills. I seek out and test evidence-based pedagogical strategies to support these goals in my courses, and supplement the literature with my own teaching innovations.
The Club Kaur project is designed to share science communication work my students have undertaken in a range of courses to bring science to the people while maintaining scientific accuracy. Courses where students do this work includes: Neuropharmacology (a 400 level elective), Science Communication (a Freshman Seminar), and NeuroScience Fiction in Film (a crossover course that combines film art, neuroscience, and analysis of contemporary social and historical events). In addition, Club Kaur features podcasts produced by me in close collaboration with undergraduate students at UNC Asheville.
Grants & Publications:
- Kaur A.W. (2022) Podcasting Neuroscience: A Science Communication Assignment. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education. 20(2):A120-A145.
- NSF IUSE #2142208. PI Kaur, Using Science Communication Instruction to Improve Undergraduate Science Literacy Skills. (Dec 2021-2024)
- Kaur A.W. (2021) Signal: A Neurotransmission Board Game. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 20(1):A18-A27.
- Kaur A.W. (2021) Tool Box: Helping First Year Undergraduates Develop Self-Management Skills. Syllabus Journal, 10(2).
- Kaur A.W. (2021) ‘Dope Syllabus’: Student Impressions of an Infographic-style Visual Syllabus. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15(2), 6.
- Luca, S. et al. (2017). Working memory and cognitive flexibility training may indicate evidence of training effect but do not show transfer to general fluid intelligence in college students. Impulse.
- Kaur, A.W. et. al. (2014). Murine pheromone proteins constitute a context-dependent combinatorial code governing multiple social behaviors. Cell. 157 (3), 676-688.
- Li, Q., et. al. (2013). Synchronous evolution of an odor biosynthesis pathway and behavioral response. Current Biology. 23, 11-20.
Kaur, A., Dey, S., Stowers, L. Live cell calcium imaging of dissociated vomeronasal neurons. (2013). Methods Mol Biol. 1068, 189-200.
More about me:
UNC Asheville Faculty Page
CV
In the news:
- Science Communication: Classes you would only find at UNC Asheville (UNC Asheville Stories, 2023)
- How a Neuroscience Professor Uses Art and Play to Create More Engaging and Fun Course Materials (Lecture Breakers Podcast, 2022)
- UNC Asheville Assistant Professor Of Neuroscience Angel Kaur Awarded $300k NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Grant (UNC Asheville News & Events, 2022)
- Graphic Syllabus (Instructional Resources, Memorial University CITL, 2022)
- Amplify Superstar (Academic Writing Amplified Podcast, 2021)
- The Superheros of the Semester (UNC Asheville Stories, 2020)
- Out in Science Panel (Gladstone Institutes, 2020)
- Award Winning Professors 2018-2019 (UNC Asheville News and Events, 2019)
- ADHD Neuroscience Educator and Researcher Angel Kaur PhD (Faster than Normal Podcast, 2019)
- Proud to be Different in STEM (Science News for Students, 2019)
- Feeding Cells and Recording Flies in the Kaur Lab (UNC Asheville, 2019)
Education:
Ph.D., The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience)
A.B., Bryn Mawr College (Biology at Haverford College)
Art & Graphic Design:
@dilexico
dilexico.etsy.com
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