Student responses to a hands-on kinesthetic lecture activity for learning about the oxygen carrying capacity of blood

This article describes a new hands-on, or "kinesthetic," activity for use in a physiology lecture hall to help students comprehend an important concept in cardiopulmonary physiology known as oxygen carrying capacity. One impetus for designing this activity was to address the needs of students who have a preference for kinesthetic learning and to help increase their understanding and engagement during lecture. This activity uses simple inexpensive materials, provides an effective model for demonstrating related pathophysiology, and helps promote active learning. The activity protocol and its implementation are described here in detail. We also report data obtained from student surveys and assessment tools to determine the effectiveness of the activity on student conceptual learning and perceptions. A brief multiple-choice pretest showed that although students had already been introduced to the relevant concepts in lecture, they had not yet mastered these concepts before performing the activity. Two postactivity assessments showed that student performance was significantly improved on the posttest compared with the pretest and that information was largely retained at the end of the course. Survey data showed that one-half of the students stated kinesthetic learning as among their learning preferences, yet nearly all students enjoyed and were engaged in this hands-on kinesthetic activity regardless of their preferences. Most students would recommend it to their peers and expressed a desire for more kinesthetic learning opportunities in the lecture curriculum.     

An innovative method to enhance interaction during lecture sessions

The B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, is following an innovative hybrid curriculum. Conventional lectures are replaced by "structured interactive sessions" (SIS). SIS involves increased interchange between teachers, students, and lecture contents by proper planning and organized efforts. It can promote active learning and heighten attention and motivation. The present study was conducted to enhance active interactions during such sessions. The students were divided into two groups and asked to come prepared for the lectures. Students were encouraged to ask questions and interact informally during lectures. A scoreboard was maintained, and student feedback was taken at the end of the lecture block. The entire student response was reduced to a student acceptability index (SAI). Our results show a statistically significant increase in interactions per student per day. A majority of the responses in the questionnaire and SAI were favorable. Specific comments and suggestions of students were also positive. These results show that simple innovative techniques enhance the interactions during a lecture session.     

Assessing formal teaching of ethics in physiology: an empirical survey, patterns, and recommendations

Ethics should be an important component of physiological education. In this report, we examined to what extent teaching of ethics is formally being incorporated into the physiology curriculum. We carried out an e-mail survey in which we asked the e-mail recipients whether their institution offered a course or lecture on ethics as part of the physiology teaching process at their institution, using the following query: "We are now doing an online survey in which we would like to know whether you offer a course or a lecture on ethics as part of your physiology teaching curriculum." The response rate was 53.3%: we received 104 responses of a total of 195 sent out. Our responses came from 45 countries. While all of our responders confirmed that there was a need for ethics during medical education and scientific training, the degree of inclusion of formal ethics in the physiology curriculum varied widely. Our survey showed that, in most cases (69%), including at our Medical University of Graz, ethics in physiology is not incorporated into the physiology curriculum. Given this result, we suggest specific topics related to ethics and ethical considerations that could be integrated into the physiology curriculum. We present here a template example of a lecture "Teaching Ethics in Physiology" (structure, content, examples, and references), which was based on guidelines and case reports provided by experts in this area (e.g., Benos DJ. Ethics revisited. Adv Physiol Educ 25: 189-190, 2001). This lecture, which we are presently using in Graz, could be used as a base that could lead to greater awareness of important ethical issues in students at an early point in the educational process.     

Closing lecture — ISPMB Congress

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Closing lecture — ISPMB Congress     

Non-native English language speakers benefit most from the use of lecture capture in medical school

Medical education in the United States and Canada continues to evolve. However, many of the changes in pedagogy are being made without appropriate evaluation. Here, we attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of lecture capture technology as a learning tool in Podiatric medical education. In this pilot project, student performance in an inaugural lecture capture-supported biochemistry course was compared to that in the previous academic year. To examine the impact of online lecture podcasts on student performance a within-subjects design was implemented, a two way ANCOVA with repeated measures. The use of lecture capture-supported pedagogy resulted in significantly higher student test scores, than achieved historically using traditional pedagogy. The overall course performance using this lecture capture-supported pedagogy was almost 6% higher than in the previous year. Non-native English language speakers benefitted more significantly from the lecture capture-supported pedagogy than native English language speakers, since their performance improved by 10.0 points. Given that underrepresented minority (URM) students, whose native language is not English, makes up a growing proportion of medical school matriculates, these observations support the use of lecture capture technology in other courses. Furthermore, this technology may also be used as part of an academic enrichment plan to improve performance on the American Podiatric Medical Licensing Examination, reduce the attrition of URM students and potentially address the predicted minority physician shortage in 2020.     

Report on the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology: "Membrane Proteins in Health and Disease"

The meeting "Membrane Proteins in Health and Disease" featured 6 sessions and 2 satellite meetings. At the opening session, Gunnar von Heijne delivered a plenary lecture entitled Insertion of Membrane Proteins into the Endoplasmic Reticulum. The following session topics were Membrane Protein Trafficking and Folding, Regulation of Membrane Proteins, Membrane Protein Structure, Membrane Proteins in Diverse Species, and Membrane Proteins and Diseases. The satellite meetings discussed bicarbonate transporters and Na+/H+ exchangers. Together the 21 lectures and 106 posters presented at the meeting spanned the full spectrum of current research into membrane protein structure and function.     

Dreaming during scientific papers: effects of added extrinsic material.

During a series of presentations of scientific papers 40.6% of 276 subjects reported dreaming, but only 18.1% actually fell asleep. The frequency of dreaming was significantly increased by the addition of either "very boring" or "very interesting" slides to the usual ones, but not by "neutral" slides. The recall of lecture content and the proportion of audience asleep were (surprisingly) not greatly affected by the addition of extraneous slides of any sort. On the other hand, adding "very interesting" slides greatly increases audience enjoyment.     

Are we building enough bridges between paleolimnology and aquatic ecology?

Opening keynote lecture to the Aquatic Ecology and Palaeolimnological Interpretation session at the Vth International Symposium on Palaeolimnology, held at Ambleside, U.K., Sept. 1, 1989.     

Summary of the 9th annual meeting of the italian society for virology

The 9th annual meeting of the Italian Society for Virology (SIV) comprised seven plenary sessions focused on: General virology and viral genetics; Virus–Host interaction and pathogenesis; Viral oncology; Emerging viruses and zoonotic, foodborne, and environmental pathways of transmission; Viral immunology and vaccines; Medical virology and antiviral therapy; Viral biotechnologies and gene therapy. Moreover, four hot topics were discussed in special lectures: the Pioneer in human virology lecture regarding the control of viral epidemics with particular emphasis on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the Pioneer in plant virology lecture focused on cell responses to plant virus infection, a Keynote lecture on the epidemiology and genetic diversity of Crimea–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus, and the G.B. Rossi lecture on the molecular basis and clinical implications of human cytomegalovirus tropism for endothelial/epithelial cells. The meeting had an attendance of about 160 virologists. A summary of the plenary lectures and oral selected presentations is reported. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 285–287, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Evaluation of physiology lectures conducted by students: comparison between evaluation by staff and students

As a peer-assisted learning process, minilectures on physiology were conducted by students. During this process, students lecture to their colleagues in the presence of faculty staff members. These lectures were evaluated by faculty staff and students simultaneously. The aim of this study was to compare feedback from faculty members and students on 66 minilectures conducted by students. Their perception of different qualities of lecture was assessed using a questionnaire. There were significant correlations between students and faculty members for many qualities of the lecture, including the speed of the lecture, retaining attention, clear introduction, and the overall quality of the lecture. However, ratings for gesture, eye contact, language usage, illustration usage, audiovisuals, voice usage, and important points stressed were significantly different between students and faculty members. Multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the degree of effect of different aspects of a lecture on its overall quality. Aspects such as gesture, eye contact, and language usage showed very low β-values, suggesting a poor contribution of these factors to the overall quality of the lecture for both students and faculty members. The speed of the lecture, retaining attention, and clear introduction were qualities that faculty members and students rated equally, and these were the main contributors to the overall quality of the lecture. Awareness about the possible discrepancy between ratings given by faculty members and students may be important when interpreting the evaluation results of formal lectures by these two groups.     

GABA Excitation during Development: the Nature of the Nurture

The lecture describes the role of GABA-mediated synaptic excitation during early ontogenesis.     

Enzymatic cleavage of RNA by RNA

The discovery and characterization of the catalytic RNA subunit of the enzyme ribonuclease P ofEscherichia coli is described.Nobel lecture given on December 8, 1989, by Professor Sidney Altman, and published in LES PRIX NOBEL 1989, printed in Sweden by Norstedts Tryckeri, Stockholm, Sweden, 1990, republished here with the permission of the Nobel Foundation, the copyright holder.     

Changing Children’s Understanding of the Brain: A Longitudinal Study of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures as a Measure of Public Engagement

Demonstrating the impact of public engagement is an increasingly important activity for today’s academics and researchers. The difficulty is that many areas of interest do not lend themselves well to evaluation because the impact of each single intervention can be hard to trace and take time to become manifest. With this in mind, we evaluated a lecture based around the 2011 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, ”Meet Your Brain,” delivered to school children from low performing schools. We compared knowledge about four neuroscience facts one week before, one week after and six weeks after the lecture. Analysis revealed significant knowledge transfer one week after the lecture that was retained five weeks later. We conclude that public engagement through tailored lectures can have significant impact in the moderate term with the potential to leave a lasting impression over a longer period.     

Drugs from emasculated hormones: The principle of syntopic antagonism

This lecture outlines the early stages in the discovery of adrenaline -receptor antagonists and of the histamine H₂-receptor antagonists. It ends with a brief personal view about future research.Published inLes Prix Nobel 1988, printed in Sweden by Norstedts Tryckeri, Stockholm, Sweden, 1989, republished here with the permission of the Nobel Foundation, the Copyright holder.     

Increasing student involvement in lectures: (very) low tech innovations in a biochemistry lecture class

The inherent passivity of the traditional lecture format makes this a poor mode for learning. In this paper I outline a simple but effective approach for eliciting student participation in the intermediate size lecture course (50–100 students). Two types of question are employed to increase student involvement. Each lecture ends with a set of questions directly related to concepts that will be covered in the next session. At the following lecture, specific students, chosen at random from the class list, are called on to answer these questions. Classroom participation is also elicited by calling on students to answer questions which focus on the major points during each lecture. Finally, students are invited to submit questions for inclusion on each exam. These devices make the lecture a more active and participatory experience.     

Inventories to insights

"In the long course of cell life on this earth it remained, for our age, for our generation, to receive the full ownership of our inheritance. We have entered the cell, the Mansion of our birth and started the inventory of our acquired wealth." (Albert Claude, Nobel lecture, 1974).     

Embryonic Induction

"Spemann's" lecture treats experiments on the separation ofthe first two cells of a frog, or sea urchin, or salamanderembryo; the induction of a lens in a frog embryo by an opticvesicle (primordium of the eye); and the primary organizer thatis a dynamic center, establishing the basic organization ofthe embryo and inducing the nervous system and sense organs."Spemann" goes beyond science in speaking poetically of thebeauty and order in the universe, and to illustrate how a goodscholar should work he uses a lovely metaphor of piecing togetherthe fragments of a broken vase. "Spemann" concludes with a stirringplea for academic freedom.     

Comparing biology majors from large lecture classes with TA-facilitated laboratories to those from small lecture classes with faculty-facilitated laboratories

The teaching faculty for this course sought to address their own concerns about the quality of student learning in an impersonal large lecture biology class for majors, the difficulties in getting to know each student by name, and difficulties in soliciting answers and reactions from the students during the lecture. Questions addressed by this study were, Do active-learning activities in a small and personal lecture setting enhance student learning more than active-learning activities in large impersonal lectures? and Are students more satisfied with an educational experience in a small and personal lecture setting? Based on faculty perceptions of how they best relate to their students, the prediction was that the students in the experimental group with small lecture classes and increased direct contact with the teaching faculty would learn physiological principles better than the students in the control group in the large impersonal lecture portion of the course. One of the laboratory sections of this large enrollment biology course was randomly selected to be taught with separate small lectures by the teaching faculty. In addition, the teaching faculty participated in the laboratory with these students during their experiments correlated with the lecture material. The students in both groups were compared by pre- and posttests of physiological principles, final course grades, and class satisfaction surveys.     

The background to Otto Warburg's conception of the Atmungsferment

Conclusion In the 1930s Warburg's spare prose and disciplined respect for the facts set the style for a new generation of biochemists who had not known the conceptual revolutions of earlier years. Led by Warburg, they rejected the excesses of the colloid school and the false starts of the teens and twenties. Talk of active structure virtually disappeared as chemists began to identify enzymes, coenzymes, vitamins, and hormones. In the gradual transformation of the Atmungsferment from an ironcolloid complex to a specific haem-protein, the roots of Warburg's inspiration were readily forgotten-the richer and more varied intellectual currents of the early decades of biochemistry. Experimental cytology and pharmacology were important strands. Most of what Warburg was doing on narcosis from 1908 to 1912 was typical of this school. He was deeply influenced by Loeb and his theory of the fertilization membrane. In the period from 1900 to 1914 the ups and down of belief in Hofmeister's enzyme theory was an important trend which helped determine the style of biochemistry in later decades. Warburg's conception of the Atmungsferment was shaped by the general reaction c. 1910 against Buchner's optimistic view. Warburg's Heidelberg lecture was framed as an answer to Hofmeister's lecture of 1901 and turned out almost as an imitation or second edition of it. It was a style that was soon out of fashion. The affinity between the early concept of enzymes and the old concept idea of living protein should not be neglected in discussions of Warburg's distaste for enzymology. The colloid school is too easily dismissed as a mere impediment to the chemical triumphs of the 1930s. Warburg's Atmungsferment was obviously colored by the colloidal cast of biochemical thought in 1912. The Atmungsferment represented, in short, a hybrid transition from the romantic biochemistry of the period 1900–1925 to the mature, classical of the 1930s. It is fascinating precisely because it reflects, and refracts through a unique and powerful mind, the varied local traditions of the early history of modern biochemistry.     

Problem-based learning within endocrine physiology lectures

Methods were needed to improve the interest of medical students in the 10-lecture Endocrine Physiology block at the end of the second semester of study. Other incentives for improvement included the possibility of attracting students into endocrine research electives and the pressure to improve teaching approaches that results from the high tuition they pay. The principal approach adopted was that of whole class problem-based learning sessions (PBLS) in which the lecture period begins with a brief overview of one to three simplified cases, followed by the usual didactic lecture. At the end of the lecture, each PBL case is read in detail, with several questions posed to the students. Their answers are then used to reinforce concepts from the lecture material. This method can also provide some continuity between lectures, either by using a case in several lectures to illustrate different points, or by posing a question at the beginning of class that illustrates a point from the prior lecture. The outcome of this approach has been very successful: student evaluations of the lecture block and their attendance have significantly improved.