Paul Grobstein Serendip co-founder

I'm a neurobiologist, educator, and parent with a life-long interest in understanding why people behave the way they do, and how they can continually expand their capabilities.

I've done laboratory research on the organization and development of the nervous systems of crayfish, rabbits, leeches, and, most extensively, frogs, where the work focused on the nature of spatial representations. and the origins, organization, regulation, and significance of unpredictability in neuronal function and behavior. This research is also related to several broader questions, including the distinction between conscious and unconscious processing, and the nature of individual choice and free will. In collaboration with colleagues in psychology, I am continuing to explore these sorts of questions in humans.

I'm also a biologist and philosopher, with an array of more general interests in the underpinnings of human behavior, the nature of biological, cultural, and intellectual change, complex systems and general information processing principles, and the character of human understanding and the relationships among its different forms. In recent years, I've been devoting increased time to thinking about the implications of current and anticipated understandings of the brain for a variety of practical and philosophical issues, including mental health, child-rearing, political decision-making, and education Associated with this is a strong commitment to improving the educational environment at all levels and for all people.

I am, in addition, an active explorer of the opportunities being made available by the development of computing technology, and of the internet and the web. With a number of colleagues, I co-founded and continue to develop the Serendip website as a venue for explorations of new directions for the development of human culture that are being opened up by the world wide web.

Common to all these activities is a strong belief in the capabilities of the human brain to explore and create, both individually and collectively, in ways that achieve improved understandings of the human condition and open new avenues for its further development. And a belief that modern information technology, including the web, is a distinctive and valuable tool for the extension of human understanding.

ACADEMIC CAREER B.A, Harvard University, 1969 M.A., Ph.D., Stanford University, 1970, 1973 Postdoctoral Fellowships at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University Assistant and Associate Professor, University of Chicago, 1974-1985 Professor of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1986-present 1986-1993, Chair of Department 1988-present, Eleanor A. Bliss Professorship 2000-present, Director, Center for Science in Society Grant Involvements (partial list) Research grants from NSF, NIH, Whitehall Foundation Neural and Behavior Systems Group, A TIDE-POOL project (private donor) Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education grant to Bryn Mawr College (PI) Selected Publications Blank, D., Cassidy, K., Dalke, A., and Grobstein, P. (2004) Emergent Pedagogy: Learning to Enjoy the Uncontrollable and Make it Productive, submitted Grobstein, P. (2004) Making the Unconscious Conscious, and Vice Versa: A Bi-directional Bridge Between Neuroscience/Cognitive Science and Psychotherapy?, submitted Grobstein, P. (2003) Getting it less wrong, the brain's way: science, pragmatism, and multiplism, IN Interpretation and Its Objects: Studies in the Philosophy of Michael Krausz (A. Ritvoi, ed.), Rodopi, pp 153-166 Dalke A., McCormack, E, and Grobstein, P. (2003) Theorizing Interdisciplinarity: The Evolution of New Academic and Intellectual Communities, submitted Dalke A. and Grobstein, P. (2003) Story-Telling in (At Least) Three Dimensions: An Exploration of Teaching Reading, Writing, and Beyond, submitted Grobstein, P. (2002) Who's afraid of Emily Dickinson, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the brain, Newsletter of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia Patton, P. and Grobstein, P (1998) The effects of telencephalic lesions on visually mediated prey orienting behavior in the frog (Rana pipiens). I. The effects of complete removal of one telencephalic lobe, with a comparison to the effects of unilateral tectal lobe lesions. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 51: 123-143. Patton, P. and Grobstein, P (1998) The effects of telencephalic lesions on visually mediated prey orienting behavior in the frog (Rana pipiens). II. The effect of limited lesions to the telencephalon. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 51: 144-161. Grobstein, P. et al. (1995-present) Serendip, a WWW resource - http://serendipstudio.org Includes: On Beyond Newton: From Simple Rules to Stability, Fluctuation, and Chaos The Magic Sierpinski Triangle, Order Dependent on Randomness Simple Networks, Simple Rules: Learning and Creating Categories Time to Think? Grobstein, P. (1994) Variability in behavior and the nervous system. In: Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, Volume 4 (V.S. Ramachandran, ed.), Academic Press, 447-458. Grobstein, P. (1992) Directed movement in the frog: motor choice, spatial representation, free will? In: Neurobiology of Motor Programme Selection: New Approaches to Mechanisms of Behavioral Choice. (Kien, J., McCrohan, C., Winlow, B., eds.), Pergamon Press, pp 251-279. Grobstein, P. (1990) Strategies for analyzing complex organization in the nervous system. I. Lesion experiments, the old rediscovered. In: Computational Neuroscience. (Schwartz, E., ed.), MIT Press, pp 19-37. Grobstein, P. (1988) From the head to the heart: some thoughts on similarities between brain function and morphogenesis, and on their significance for research methodology and biological theory. Experientia 44: 961-971. Using Thinking to Try and Make a Difference (recent essays available on Serendip) Writing Descartes: I Am, and I Can Think, Therefore ... , June 2004 Science Matters ... How?, November 2003 The Neurobiology of Parenting, November 2003 Some Thoughts on Academic Structure (and Socio-Political Structures Generally): A Biological Metaphor as an Alternative to Both State's Rights and Federalism, November 2003 "I Believe ... ": Its Significance and Limitations for Individuals, Science, and Politics, July 2003 Language/Science/Politics 101: War Is A Bad Metaphor, June 2003

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Bryn Mawr College courses Introductory Biology Neurobiology and Behavior Freshman Seminar The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories (Biology 223 = English 223) Philosophy of Science Additional teaching activities Inquiry, Interaction, and Technology - a workshop for education students Brain and Behavior Institute - for Philadelphia precollege teachers Diversity and Discovery Institute - for Philadelphia precollege teachers Recent web-based talks/presentations Science in Society in the 21st Century: Interdisciplinarity and Beyond, August, 2004 Teaching With/On the Web, April 2004 A Biological Perspective on Mental Health, February 2004 Genetics and Evolution The Brain and Culture Is There Life on Mars? A Story About ... A Contemporary Chapter of a Story in Progress, January 2004 Emerging Emergence, A Report on Progress: From the Active Inanimate to Models to Stories to Agency (and Back Again), January 2004 Education as Applied Neurobiology: Students and Teachers as Story Tellers/Listeners/Exchangers, January 2004 Quantity, quality, and value: A View from the Brain, December 2003 Understanding the Brain: Implications for Education, and the Bryn Mawr Center for Science in Society: Learning to Put Theory into Practice, November 2003 One Man's Story of Learning Through Diversity, (October, 2003) Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: Enemies, Acquaintances, Bedfellows?, (October, 2003) A Story of Emergence Emerging (September, 2003) Emergence and Contingency/Purpose/Agency: An Exploration of an Intersection Between History and Biology/Neurobiology, September, 2003 College Seminar and the Public/Private Arenas (August, 2003, with Anne Dalke) Mind-Body Connection: The Brain, 9 April 2003 A Vision of Science (and Science Education) in the 21st Century: Everybody "Getting It Less Wrong" Together (3 April, 2003, Illinois Science and Mathematics Academy, see paper) Timing the Conscious and the Unconscious: Some Implications for Thinking ... and Thinking About Time (18 March 2003) Understanding the Brain: Implications for Education (19 December 2002, Counseling Association of Greater Philadelphia) Philosophies of Science: A View From the Brain (11 December 2002) From Complex Systems to Emergence: A General Conceptual and Philosophical Perspective (November 15, 2002) The Brain's Images: Co-Constructing Reality and Self (11 August 2002, 11th Annual Usability Professional's Organization Meeting, see Paper) Loopiness As a Pedagogical Methodology (May, 2002, with Anne Dalke) Introductory Science: Experiments in Bridging Cultures (spring, 2002) Depression, or (Better?) Thinking About Mood (spring 2002) Brains, Computers, and Education 2000, a five year progress report New Serendip exhibits Thinking About Segregation and Integration: An Interactive Scientific Exploration Using Models, December 2003 Additional available web materials (partial list) Genes, Networks, Behavior, and Beyond: Thinking Backwards About the Brain and Education From Genomes to Dreams Diversity and Deviance: A Biological Perspective The Free Will Problem Exploring the Consciousness Problem Science and Non-science: Bridging the Two Culture Gap Two Cultures or One? The Scientist/Teacher: A Call to Arms Getting It Less Wrong: Some Thoughts on Introductory Science Teaching ... Serendip Credo on Education and Technology Brain and Behavior - A Serendip section Genes, Brains, and Behavior - A Work in Progress - A Serendip section Playground - A Serendip section Complex Systems - A Serendip section Science Education - A Serendip section About ... Serendip Bryn Mawr College information Biology Department information pgrobste@brynmawr.edu 610 526-5098 Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010