Dee U. Silverthorn

From College to Clinic: Reasoning Over Memorization Is Key for Understanding Anatomy

Anatomy and physiology are taught in community colleges, liberal arts colleges, universities, and medical schools. The goals of the students vary, but educators in these diverse settings agree that success hinges on learning concepts rather than memorizing facts. In this article, educators from across the postsecondary educational spectrum expand on several points: (1) There is a problem with student perception that anatomy is endless memorization, whereas the ability to manage information and use reasoning to solve problems are ways that professionals work. This misperception causes students to approach the subject with the wrong attitude. (2) The process of learning to use information is as important as the concepts themselves. Using understanding to explain and make connections is a more useful long‐term lesson than is memorization. Anatomy should be presented and learned as a dynamic basis for problem solving and for application in the practice and delivery of quality health care. (3) Integration of form and function must be explicit and universal across all systems. (4) Using only models, images, audiovisuals, or computers cannot lead students to the requisite reasoning that comes from investigative dissection of real tissue. (5) Some undergraduate courses require students to memorize excessive musculoskeletal detail. (6) Learning tissue biology is a particular struggle for medical students who have no background from an undergraduate course. (7) Medical professors and students see benefits when students have taken undergraduate courses in anatomy, histology, and physiology. If medical schools suggest these electives to applicants, medical students might arrive better prepared and, thus, be able to learn clinical correlations more efficiently in the limited allocated time of medical school curricula. Anat Rec (New Anat) 269:69–80, 2002.

Insight toward epithelial Na+ channel mechanism revealed by the acid-sensing ion channel 1 structure

The epithelial Na+ channel/degenerin (ENaC/DEG) protein family includes a diverse group of ion channels, including nonvoltage‐gated Na+ channels of epithelia and neurons, and the acid‐sensing ion channel 1 (ASIC1). In mammalian epithelia, ENaC helps regulate Na+ and associated water transport, making it a critical determinant of systemic blood pressure and pulmonary mucosal fluidity. In the nervous system, ENaC/DEG proteins are related to sensory transduction. While the importance and physiological function of these ion channels are established, less is known about their structure. One hallmark of the ENaC/DEG channel family is that each channel subunit has only two transmembrane domains connected by an exceedingly large extracellular loop. This subunit structure was recently confirmed when Jasti and colleagues determined the crystal structure of chicken ASIC1, a neuronal acid‐sensing ENaC/DEG channel. By mapping ENaC to the structural coordinates of cASIC1, as we do here, we hope to provide insight toward ENaC structure. ENaC, like ASIC1, appears to be a trimeric channel containing 1α, 1β, and 1γ subunit. Heterotrimeric ENaC and monomeric ENaC subunits within the trimer possibly contain many of the major secondary, tertiary, and quaternary features identified in cASIC1 with a few subtle but critical differences. These differences are expected to have profound effects on channel behavior. In particular, they may contribute to ENaC insensitivity to acid and to its constitutive activity in the absence of time‐ and ligand‐dependent inactivation. Experiments resulting from this comparison of cASIC1 and ENaC may help clarify unresolved issues related to ENaC architecture, and may help identify secondary structures and residues critical to ENaC function.

Cold stress and the cold pressor test

Temperature and other environmental stressors are known to affect blood pressure and heart rate. In this activity, students perform the cold pressor test, demonstrating increased blood pressure during a 1- to 2-min immersion of one hand in ice water. The cold pressor test is used clinically to evaluate autonomic and left ventricular function. This activity is easily adapted to an inquiry format that asks students to go to the scientific literature to learn about the test and then design a protocol for carrying out the test in classmates. The data collected are ideal for teaching graphical presentation of data and statistical analysis.

Developing a concepts-based physiology curriculum for bioengineering: a VaNTH project

Physiology is recognized as a core topic for biomedical engineering but the physiology courses taught to bioengineering students vary widely in scope and depth from institution to institution. As part of the NSF-sponsored VaNTH Engineering Research Center in Bioengineering Educational Technologies curriculum project, a group of bioengineering, physiology, and learning science faculty have been developing a physiology taxonomy that could guide curriculum development. The initial efforts focused on a systems-based taxonomy but we have now changed to a concepts-based taxonomy that will be cross-referenced with topics taught in system physiology courses. The final product will include resources for developing a learner-centered bioengineering physiology curriculum.

Teaching Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is a non-linear way of organizing material which was first introduced into science education in the late 1970s and early 1980s.’” A map consists of concepts (items or events) linked by arrows labelled to explain the relationship between the connected terms. The most general or most inclusive terms are placed at the top of the map, with each descending level containing material that is more and more specific. The advantage of a concept map over a traditional outline is its nonlinearity. A good concept map will be like a road map, with arrows going in all directions to tie together related concepts. Since lectures and textbooks present material in a linear fashion, students may lose track of the fact that material currently under discussion has some relationship to topics covered previously. Concept maps with their horizontal and branching linkages provide an opportunity for students to explore complex relationships in a biological system. Students can be provided with teacher-prepared maps, but the real benefit of mapping comes about when students prepare their own maps. By arranging the material themselves, students question the relationships between terms, organize concepts into a hierarchical structure, and look for similarities and differences between items. Teaching students how to concept map is important since it is probably an unfamiliar process and they may not know how to begin. The instructor introduces mapping by explaining the parts and structure of a map. Students are assigned a familiar topic (living organisms, the cell, the forest) and asked to make individual maps. Several student maps are then drawn on the board and discussed to show the students that ( a ) there is no “right” way to draw a map as long as the relationships are correct, and that (b) maps are as individual as the people who draw them. For beginning students, the instructor may provide a list of concepts to be mapped. More advanced students can design their own maps. Once the maps are discussed, the instructor assigns the students to small groups in which they compare, critique, and revise their maps. Some groups may elect to make a composite group map. Two key points to the instruction are: (1) students make individual maps first, and (2) students compare maps in small groups. The small group work points out incorrect linkages between terms and reminds students of concepts and links they may have forgotten to include on their individual maps. Examples of good and bad student maps are shown in FIGURES 1 and 2. Once students are comfortable with this type of concept map, they may move into more complex mapping strategies. The students select a major unit of information such as photosynthesis or the cardiovascular system. They then integrate everything they learned in the unit into a single giant map on a piece of poster board. These complex maps may include anatomical drawings and

Harnessing the power of an online teaching community: connect, share, and collaborate

in the 1990s, the American Physiological Society (APS), like most organizations, was exploring ways to support members and trainees via online resources and programs. Online communication was still primarily accomplished via e-mail, listserves, and websites, although discussion boards and social

Learning (by) osmosis: an approach to teaching osmolarity and tonicity

Understanding osmolarity and tonicity is one of the more challenging endeavors undertaken by students of the natural sciences. We asked students who completed a course in animal physiology to submit an essay explaining what they found most perplexing about this subject, and what in-class activities proved most useful to them. Students had difficulty distinguishing osmolarity from tonicity and determining tonicity based on the solutions composition. The most useful activities were questions requiring simultaneous consideration of both osmolarity and tonicity. Problems that require calculating osmotic concentration and the volumes of body fluid compartments after administration or loss of various solutions emphasize the significance of osmolarity and tonicity in the context of systemic homeostasis and clinical medicine. We hope that our approach to teaching osmolarity and tonicity will prove useful to physiology lecturers who are looking for new ways of introducing this complicated topic to their health professions students.

Undergraduate and medical school physiology education in the United States

In the United States, physiology education during much of the 20th century was concentrated in departments of physiology in professional and graduate schools, with more diffuse representation of mostly animal and exercise physiologists in undergraduate campuses. This model began to change in the

Physiology for the 21st century: a sourcebook of laboratory activities in physiology

this issue of Advances in Physiology Education ( Advances ) sees the debut of a new section, the Sourcebook of Laboratory Activities in Physiology. The original sourcebook was developed in the 1970s and published by the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Commission on Teaching

Finding a Water Balance

conservation requirements of insects. His selected case studies are from insect orders including Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Odonata, and Plecoptera in Australia, Europe (particularly the United Kingdom), Japan, New Zealand, and North and South America. New educates readers about many insect conservation topics, including laws, policies, priorities, and strategies; inferring and defining threats (including habitat destruction, alien species, pesticides, and overcollecting); bioclimatic variables and climate change; and future needs. Readers learn about conservation methods such as ex situ and in situ programs; site modification and restoration; and captive breeding, monitoring, reintroduction, and translocation methods. Public education, acceptance, and promotion are key parts of insect conservation programs. Many children go through a “bug phase” during which they are fascinated with insects. Teachers and society as a whole should nurture and protract this phase as part of lifetime Earth stewardship. Nature deficit disorder is on the rise worldwide as more children spend more and more time indoors in our increasingly technological world. We need additional adopt-acaterpillar (and other larvae) programs, such as the one New described for Ornithoptera richmondia (Richmond birdwing butterfly) in Australia, not only to help the insects in the short term but also to raise children’s and others’ awareness of nature in the long term. Further, New understands the positive reasons for insect collecting and suggests that collectors sometimes be allowed to gather even rare species in moderation, because amateur entomologists often provide important biological information and can be staunch conservationists as well. A child’s insect collection, which need not contain any rare species, can lead to a career in conservation biology or other science, as occurred with several biologists I know. When reading, I tried to put myself in the shoes of a hands-on, very busy, dedicated conservation manager who is unfamiliar with insects to try to imagine how such a person would this “unicorn” exists after referring to my six books on North American butterflies and consulting with two Smithsonian lepidopterists. Erynnis is a genus of skipper butterflies and comyntas is the specific epithet of a so-far-nonthreatened, spritely North American lycaenid butterfly called the Eastern tailed blue. Insect Species Conservation is a significant summary and synthesis of insect conservation that should be read by conservationists and others to broaden their horizons. Conservation managers should keep this book handy to help inform their adaptivemanagement programs, while fully realizing that methods that work in conserving some species may not work for others.