Curriculum
Each course in the Building Healthy Brains program is based on the most current neuroscience research. With the transition-age brain at the center of each area of study, you’ll have the opportunity to explore many aspects of physical and mental health, learning techniques to support youth in your care, while also opening your eyes to ways you might improve your own physical and mental well-being. See below for the course schedule and descriptions.
- Note: Upon registration of each course, you will have access to the course materials for six months. Each course contains four modules. In order to receive your digital badge, you must finish the four modules within the six-month period.
Healthy Brains Healthy Bodies – Register for course: Now available on-demand!
Science of Happiness – Register for course: Now available on-demand!
Sleep & Your Brain – Register for course: Now available on-demand!
Course Descriptions
- Healthy Brains Healthy Bodies Course now available on-demand!
Instructors: William Copeland, PhD, and Ellen McGinnis, PhD
This course is designed to help you support youth in your care in understanding the impacts of their choices, and to help you guide them toward healthier behaviors. Healthy Brains Healthy Bodies focuses on the interplay between your environment, epigenome, brain, and behaviors. Your environment and what you do impacts the structure and function of your brain, and therefore your subsequent thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This course includes fundamental information on epigenetics, brain structure and function across development, as well as typical behavioral and emotional functioning.
- Science of Happiness Course now available on-demand!
Instructors: William Copeland, PhD, and Andrew Rosenfeld, MD
In Science of Happiness, we will survey the science of well-being with a focus on replacing the standard medical approaches of curing illness or reducing dysfunction, in favor of pursuits such as making meaning, pursuing goals, enhancing well-being, and fulfilling potential. To this end, we will explore the following facets of “happiness”:
- The neuroscientific and genetic base of happiness
- What distinguishes one happiness from another
- How “happinesses” interact in daily living
- What elements of happiness are changeable
- How one would go about optimizing positive experiences in one’s life and/or the broader community
The course has an experiential design—it is essential that you are actively engaged in experimentation with these concepts, assaying the tenets, structure, and limits of your own happiness.
- Sleep & Your Brain Course now available on-demand!
Instructor: Jim Hudziak, MD
It is well known that getting adequate sleep is vital for optimal living. What isn’t as well known is the brain science behind why it’s so important that we all learn how to improve our sleep habits. In Sleep & Your Brain, we delve into the following topics:
- The neurological implications of inadequate sleep
- Developmental aspects of sleep across the age spectrum
- Special populations, such as night-shift workers and parents of infants
These courses focus on improving sleep hygiene in order to improve our own physical and mental health.