Fantastic animations for Harvard's online neuroscience course

Nothing helps the brain learn better than a good old visual aid, so what better way to tackle Harvard’s online neuroscience course than to watch these clever animations.

To sit alongside a wealth of other educational content for the course, the animations are part of a series called, Fundamentals of Neuroscience. Breaking down the material into bite-sized snippets, if you’ve never been tempted by the intricacies of neurons and synapses before these videos will definitely give you an uncontrollable urge to get into a laboratory pronto.

We’re drawn most to Grace Helmer’s film, as she uses her wonderful oil painted pictures to help explain neuron signals. As one of our 2012 Graduates, her painterly style works brilliantly here adding a fluidity to the video. The animations from Daniela Sherer, Lily Fang and Tim Divall (see below) are just as engaging, each mirroring the individual style of the animator in a bright and playful way to enhance the narration.

It’s so interesting to see a university, especially one as prestigious as Harvard, utilising the skills of these creatives to communicate the course material in a new way. It also highlights the changing shape of education and how taking a course is no longer restricted to classroom learning.