As the Baby Boomer generation reaches old age, there has been a significant increase in the number of older adults needing healthcare over the past decade. The physiology of aging is therefore a highly relevant topic for the preclinical medical curriculum. I describe a new capstone unit on the physiology of aging, placed at the end a medical…

As immunology continues to evolve, many educational methods have found difficulty in conveying the degree of complexity inherent in its basic principles. Today, the teaching-learning process in such areas has been improved with tools such as educational software. This article introduces "Virtual Immunology," a software program available…

Anyone who has taught neurophysiology would be aware of recurring concepts that students find difficult to understand. However, a greater problem is the development of misconceptions that may be difficult to change. For example, one common misconception is that action potentials pass directly across chemical synapses. Difficulties may be…

Online-learning environment can substantially improve student learning and retention of key health concepts. In this case report, we describe our approach for the design of online learning modules to teach concepts in an undergraduate health science/kinesiology curriculum. This report describes our use of these concepts in two lower division and…

Despite a profusion of popular misinformation about the left brain and right brain, there are functional differences between the left and right cerebral hemispheres in humans. Evidence from split-brain patients, individuals with unilateral brain damage, and neuroimaging studies suggest that each hemisphere may be specialized for certain cognitive…

The model organism, "Caenorhabditis elegans," in addition to being well suited to genetics and cell biology teaching applications, can also be useful in the physiology laboratory. In this article, the author describes how students in a junior level college Comparative Physiology course have made use of "C. elegans" in semester-long,…

It is not what is taught that has the most influence on students' study behaviour, but rather what is assessed. Computer-assisted assessment offers the possibility of widening the scope of the material that is assessed, without placing excessive burdens on either staff or students. This article describes a computer-assisted assessment scheme…

This paper discusses the use of guided design with white student nurses at the Medical College of Virginia Nursing School to help them develop an awareness of and reduce stereotypic responses when they are providing nursing care to black patients. The need for this type of training for both faculty and students is discussed, a series of seminars…