Advances in Physiology Education最新文献

During the years 2020-2022, COVID-19-related restrictions led to fewer in-person lab offerings in Neuroscience and Biology courses, resulting in negative impacts on students' skills and confidence. In this study, we investigate the impact of a co-curricular undergraduate lab skills program, the Practical Skills Passport (PSP), on student lab confidence. PSP tasks were designed based on informal student feedback and refined via pilot testing by postgraduates with no wet lab experience. Sessions were delivered weekly during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years. The impact was evaluated using a survey of students who had attended at least one PSP session. Students at various stages of study in Neuroscience and Biology undergraduate programs attended the PSP. Survey respondents indicated that they felt their confidence in their lab skills improved following PSP attendance. Survey respondents rated the PSP positively overall and expressed interest in attending again. Attendance at the PSP peaked in the first few weeks of semester 1 in each year and declined thereafter, indicating that students are more interested in lab skills practice after returning from the summer break. Fewer students attended in 2022-2023 compared to 2021-2022, probably reflecting the return to all in-person learning as COVID-19 restrictions lifted. In general, "core" lab tasks were more popular in 2021-2022, and specialized tasks were more popular in 2022-2023.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The COVID-19 pandemic reduced opportunities for in-person lab classes, negatively impacting students' skills and confidence. We developed a co-curricular program of lab skills catch-up sessions with the aim of restoring student lab confidence during the return to in-person instruction. Here we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of this program. Our evaluation indicates that engagement with the program positively impacted student lab confidence.

Preclinical education has traditionally focused on didactic lectures, often overlooking student engagement and clinical correlations. To address this issue, active learning methods have been introduced, though their adoption is still in its early stages. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of incorporating case-based teaching with flipped classroom methods and compare it to interactive lectures in undergraduate physiology education. A quasiexperimental study was conducted at XYZ Medical College from June to October 2023. A sample of 94 first-year medical students was divided into two groups: one with case-based teaching using the flipped classroom approach and the other with interactive lectures, each containing an equal number of high, average, and low achievers. The flipped classroom group engaged with preclass reading materials and in-class discussions using the Jigsaw method, whereas the other group participated in interactive lectures. Each group completed three sessions. Pretests and posttests were administered, and a modified "Student Course Evaluation Questionnaire" was used to collect student feedback. Posttest scores significantly improved in both groups, with the flipped classroom group showing better performance in sessions 1 [F(1,91) = 5.343, P = 0.023] and 3 [F(1,91) = 5.322, P = 0.023], regardless of sex. This group also reported greater satisfaction with workload, course organization, learning resources, and teaching methods (p < 0.05, d = 0.5-1). Integrating the flipped classroom with case-based teaching in preclinical education can significantly enhance students' active learning. This research offers valuable insights for curriculum development and instructional practices in medical education.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In this article, we compare the effects of the flipped classroom (FC) and interactive lectures (ILs) in a case-based physiology teaching approach on medical students' performance and satisfaction. Our findings show that the FC significantly increased student engagement, improved the learning environment, enhanced the quality of delivery, and deepened students' understanding of the topic compared to ILs.

What if the best students, the truly curious, creative, and intellectually fearless, are the very ones quietly filtered out by the admissions process? This Personal View confronts a hard truth: the medical admissions process, hailed as rigorous and fair, systematically selects against deep thinkers. By elevating GPA, MCAT scores, and strategically curated experiences, the system rewards compliance, performance, and risk avoidance, traits antithetical to authentic learning. Premedical education has become a crucible of conformity. Students quickly learn that exploration is dangerous, ambiguity is punished, and box-checking is everything. Great students, those who read widely, think deeply, and challenge assumptions, either contort themselves into applicants or quietly walk away. The result? A profession that mistakes obedience for excellence. This piece argues that the admissions process does not just miss great minds-it repels them. The consequence is not merely academic; it's clinical. When medicine favors superficial metrics over intellectual vitality, it cultivates practitioners who fear uncertainty, avoid reflection, and cling to algorithms instead of insight. Reform cannot be cosmetic. Holistic review, in its current form, is too often symbolic rather than substantive. If we want physicians who can think beyond protocols and adapt to complexity, we must stop selecting for test-takers and start selecting for thinkers. Until then, we will keep losing our most promising minds, not because they failed the system but because the system failed them.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This Personal View exposes a harsh paradox: the very process designed to select future physicians actively repels the most intellectually vibrant minds. By rewarding risk-averse, GPA-driven box-checking, medical admissions undermine curiosity, creativity, and reflective thinking. Rather than cultivating bold, adaptive clinicians, we are grooming compliant test-takers. If medicine is to reclaim its intellectual soul, we must radically rethink what, and whom, we reward.

Video games have been used more frequently in educational settings in recent years. Research investigating the efficacy of games with an educational focus is predominantly utilized in primary and secondary school settings, but educational games with sufficient complexity could have utility in tertiary education. Minecraft Education Edition (MEE) is an immersive, three-dimensional (3-D) game where players/students have freedom to use and manipulate a variety of blocks, akin to "virtual Lego." The open-world and creative nature of MEE fosters collaborative play, and the freedom to build structures, switches, and other mechanisms allows educators to create functional and interactive models of physiological systems. This article describes how MEE was used to teach skeletal muscle and cardiac physiology to second-year university students through creation of custom-made interactive worlds. Explorations of the virtual skeletal muscle and heart were run as an on-campus activity. In the first teaching activity, a virtual 3-D interactive model was created in MEE where students activated distinct processes of skeletal muscle excitation, excitation-contraction (EC) coupling, and contraction. In the second teaching activity, a 3-D interactive model of the heart was created in MEE where students controlled each part of the cardiac cycle. Both activities were followed by a custom-made "escape room"-style quiz, followed by an in-class discussion aimed to highlight any limitations of the models. This article explores how these virtual models were created, providing a detailed description of the learning activities, and discusses the benefits, limitations, and relevant education theories of using Minecraft Education Edition in physiology teaching.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first published work exemplifying the use of Minecraft Education Edition (MEE) in tertiary-level physiology education. We describe two separate interactive teaching activities for skeletal muscle and cardiac physiology using MEE. Recommendations are provided so that educators can adapt the use of MEE virtual worlds to their own curriculum design.

Models that illustrate renal fluid dynamics are scarce within the secondary and postsecondary landscape. This work summarizes the efforts to build a rudimentary model renal corpuscle (MRC) that can be employed in a problem-based learning exercise or demonstration to teach basic principles of renal physiology to secondary students or undergraduates. The MRC presented here was constructed from readily available parts and allows the user to simulate changes in "systemic blood pressure," modulate the diameter of the "afferent arteriole," and assess how these changes affect glomerular filtration. While our model shows promise as an educational tool, modifications are suggested before it is optimized for student use.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This work describes the efforts to create a model renal corpuscle that may be employed in an educational demo or problem-based learning exercise. Working nephron models that illustrate renal fluid dynamics are not widely available, which warrants the exploration of this new domain of teaching tools.

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are frequently used in medical education for assessment. Automated generation of MCQs in board-exam format could potentially save significant effort for faculty and generate a wider set of practice materials for student use. The goal of this study was to explore the feasibility of using ChatGPT by OpenAI to generate United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE)/Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA)-style practice quiz items as study aids. Researchers gave second-year medical students studying renal physiology access to a set of practice quizzes with ChatGPT-generated questions. The exam items generated were evaluated by independent experts for quality and adherence to the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)/National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) guidelines. Forty-nine percent of questions contained item writing flaws, and 22% contained factual or conceptual errors. However, 59/65 (91%) were categorized as a reasonable starting point for revision. These results demonstrate the feasibility of large language model (LLM)-generated practice questions in medical education but only when supervised by a subject matter expert with training in exam item writing.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Practice board exam questions generated by large language models can be made suitable for preclinical medical students by subject-matter experts.

Teaching and learning immunology pose significant challenges due to its abstract and complex nature. However, the use of analogies, such as the lymph node club, can greatly aid in elucidating these abstract principles. This Perspective introduces a nightclub-themed analogy to help students visualize immune surveillance, activation, and response within lymph nodes. By mapping immune cell interactions to familiar social dynamics, the analogy enhances conceptual understanding of complex immunological processes. It discusses how the analogy can be integrated into health professions education, tailored to different learner levels, and thoughtfully framed to highlight both its advantages and limitations. It offers a creative, flexible tool for engaging students in immunology.

This paper describes a short ion flow activity that can be completed within one lab or lecture session. The activity is focused on the core concept of flow-down gradients and is geared toward undergraduates. No previous knowledge of equilibrium potentials or membrane potentials is required. Students are guided through a set of questions that build in complexity. First, the K⁺ gradient across the membrane is considered. Simple questions are posed that allow students to build a foundation of basic facts regarding ion flow. Next, students work with the Nernst equation to investigate equilibrium potentials. In this part of the activity, students are presented with several sets of conditions in which the K⁺ gradient is made more or less steep, and they are asked to calculate the effect on the equilibrium potential. Students then write a description of the relationship between the magnitude of the gradient and the equilibrium potential. This is preparation for moving on to use a Nernst/Goldman simulator that allows manipulating the K⁺, Na⁺, and/or Cl^- gradients, as well as temperature and permeability. Finally, students answer questions that prompt them to summarize their knowledge regarding equilibrium potentials, membrane voltages, and the effect of temperature on the membrane voltage. By the end of the activity, students should be able to compare and contrast the Nernst and Goldman equations.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This activity uses simple models and online tools to introduce students to the basic principles of ion flow.

Type 2 diabetes is a growing concern among young adults, including college students, due to rates of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and limited disease awareness. Despite the risk, few studies have examined the effectiveness of targeted educational interventions among this population. To determine whether a pharmacy student-led educational session improves knowledge, retention, and motivation for behavior change related to type 2 diabetes prevention among undergraduate students. A group of third-year pharmacy students conducted 30-minute interactive educational sessions on a college campus in North Carolina. The sessions covered risk factors, prevention strategies, and healthy behaviors using slides, interactive questions, and video clips. Participants completed a presurvey, immediate postsurvey, and a 2- to 3-month follow-up survey assessing knowledge and self-reported behaviors. A paired t test and ANOVA with post hoc analysis evaluated changes in knowledge over time. Sixty-four students completed both the pre- and postsurveys. Knowledge scores significantly improved from pre- to postsurvey (7.0 ± 1.6 to 9.7 ± 1.4; P < 0.001). Of the 17 students completing the follow-up survey, knowledge remained significantly higher than baseline (pre: 6.4 ± 1.27; post: 8.7 ± 1.31; follow-up: 9.9 ± 2.28; P < 0.001). Participants reported increased motivation to adopt healthier behaviors, such as physical activity, improved nutrition using the Plate Method, and adequate sleep. An interactive, pharmacy student-led educational session significantly improved college students' knowledge and motivation to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Tailored, engaging outreach may be an effective strategy to address early prevention in at-risk college populations.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A pharmacy student-led educational initiative improved college students' knowledge and motivation related to type 2 diabetes prevention. Through interactive 30-minute sessions covering risk factors and healthy behaviors, participants showed marked gains in knowledge immediately and sustained at 2-3 months. Students also reported lifestyle changes, including improved diet, increased physical activity, and better sleep. This peer-delivered approach highlights the potential of tailored, engaging outreach to promote early prevention in at-risk young adult populations.