An Introduction to Carol Israel

Understanding me and my interests involves knowing that for 23 years, I have worked at Phillips Academy in Andover, Ma.

Phillips Academy is a residential, independent high school for high achieving adolescents. Click here for a look at my office, my colleagues, and our departmental course offerings.

This past year, a colleague of mine who is a molecular biologist and I have developed and begun to teach an interdisciplinary course entitled "The Brain and You: A User's Guide". Here is a description of this course:

SCIE-490/PSYC-440
The Brain and You—A User’s Guide
(W)
Five class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. See also PSYC-440. The human brain is the most sophisticated biological organ ever evolved on Earth and is the source of all human cognitive functions. Have you ever wondered how yours works? How do you use it to enjoy music, for social relationships, or to experience strong emotions? Have you ever asked yourself whether there are differences between the male and female brains or if the capabilities of the human brain are really unique in the animal kingdom? Join us in this interdisciplinary course as we search for answers to these questions (and more) by examining the evolution and function of the brain and how this applies to understanding the role of the brain in complex human psychology, including the perception, creation, and performance of music, personality, memory, and other higher intellectual activities. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either science or psychology. A student who wishes to receive science credit should sign up for SCIE-490; a student who wishes to receive psychology credit should sign up for PSYC-440.

I am very excited about this course, and have come to this institute in order to enhance my knowledge of the brain in order to better teach this course.

I am also taking a sabbatical this fall and working at Boston University School of Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, in the Laboratory of Intelligence Modeing and Neurophysics so that I can continue to learn more about the brain. Here's a link to Dr. Peter Bergethon's page, who is the director of the lab in which I will be working.

I am looking forward to being a much more knowledgeable teacher by the time I step back into the classroom next January.