The value of active learning for increasing student comprehension and retention of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts within undergraduate courses has proven to be beneficial many times over; however, barriers still exist for both instructors and students. For example, instructors are often left to decide what type…

This paper describes the process involved in conducting an online spirometry practical through Zoom. The teacher demonstrated the practical from the medical school, and the students observed the procedure from the comfort of their own homes. Students were able to analyze the graphs captured in the teacher's laptop by remotely controlling the…

Bioscience is a foundational unit (subject) of undergraduate allied health degree programs, providing students the scientific basis underpinning their clinical practice. However, despite its significance, bioscience is a difficult academic hurdle for many students to master. The introduction of active learning strategies, including small…

The laboratory course is an excellent venue to apply content, practice inquiry, improve critical thinking, practice key clinical skills, and work with data. The use of inquiry-based course projects allows for students to propose open ended questions, form a hypothesis, design an experiment, collect data, analyze data, draw conclusion, and present…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) strongly recommends that "science be taught as science is practiced." This means that the teaching approach must be consistent with the nature of scientific inquiry. In this article, the authors describe how they added scientific inquiry to a large lecture-based physiology…

Renal transport is a central mechanism underlying electrolyte homeostasis, acid base balance and other essential functions of the kidneys in human physiology. Thus, knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the nephron is essential for the understanding of kidney function in health and disease. However, students find this content difficult to…

The American Physiological Society (APS) Teaching Section annually honors an educator through its Claude Bernard Distinguished Lecture at the Experimental Biology meeting. Since I knew about my selection for almost a year, I had a long time to think about what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. The theme of my presentation was…

The accommodation of diverse student learning approaches and maintenance of good academic outcomes are often difficult to achieve in university courses, particularly where large classes are concerned. These issues become even more significant when dealing with first-year students in science courses with high levels of factual and conceptual…

In this article, the authors describe an active learning exercise which has been used to replace some lecture hours in the renal portion of an integrated, organ system-based curriculum for first-year medical students. The exercise takes place in a large auditorium with ~150 students. The authors, who are faculty members, lead the discussions,…

Process-oriented guided-inquiry learning (POGIL), a pedagogical technique initially developed for college chemistry courses, has been implemented for 2 yr in a freshman-level anatomy and physiology course at a small private college. The course is populated with students with backgrounds ranging from no previous college-level science to junior and…

The introduction of case studies on the autonomic nervous system in a fourth-semester physiology course unit for Pharmacy students is described in this article. This article considers how these case studies were developed and presents their content. Moreover, it reflects on their implementation and, finally, the reception of such a transformation…

Second-year medical students at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (Durban, South Africa) were given a brief to prepare oral presentations on topics related to disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and endocrine system in the form of "patient-doctor" role play and to submit written documents about their topics. This initiative…

Numerous articles have been published on the merits of active learning, and collectively they present a body of compelling evidence that these methods do enhance learning. In presenting arguments for active learning, it is often suggested that the traditional didactic lecture is more passive in nature and less effective as a teaching tool.…

Teaching high school students about the digestive system can be a challenge for a teacher when s/he wants to overcome rote learning of facts without a deeper understanding of the physiological processes inside the alimentary tract. A series of model experiments illustrating the journey of a sandwich was introduced into teaching high school…

Classroom discussion of the classic article by Walter B. Cannon in 1914, entitled "The emergency function of the adrenal medulla in pain and the major emotions," is an excellent tool to teach graduate students the interaction between stress, emotions, and cardiovascular function. Using this article, we are able to review important early research…