Despite the growing awareness of the importance of plant secondary metabolites in insect-plant interactions, undergraduate degree content in agronomy and biology generally does not provide a clear concept to students in relation to secondary metabolite induction of plant defences, implying that students do not obtain a good understanding of the…

Incorporating forensic applications into chemical education serves as an effective strategy for engaging college students and equipping them with the skills necessary to become valuable in the workforce in relevant fields. For instance, learning how to extract controlled substances from biological specimens in a laboratory course is essential for…

Chemistry undergraduate curricula typically place Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lectures under either Organic Chemistry or Spectroscopy courses, aiming for students to acquire basic knowledge for the determination of the structure of simple organic compounds. On the other hand, regarding laboratory practice, NMR is frequently disregarded by…

This descriptive report explores the implementation of the use of plastinated specimens in a Doctor of Physical Therapy human anatomy curriculum as an alternative to traditional body donor dissection. Plastination, a preservation technique developed in the 1970s, creates durable and flexible specimens that retain detailed anatomical features. The…

There are few graduate programs available for pursuing a doctorate in anatomy where students gain specific training in gross anatomy dissection and the responsibilities of a medical educator. In light of this fact, the University of Kentucky created a Graduate Certificate in Anatomical Sciences Instruction in 2006. This 12-credit hour curriculum…

This study compared the efficacy of two cardiac anatomy teaching modalities, ultrasound imaging and cadaveric prosections, for learning cardiac gross anatomy. One hundred and eight first-year medical students participated. Two weeks prior to the teaching intervention, students completed a pretest to assess their prior knowledge and to ensure that…

Rapid changes in medical knowledge are forcing continuous adaptation of the basic science courses in medical schools. This article discusses a three-year experience developing a new Computed Tomography (CT)-based anatomy curriculum at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, including describing the motivations and reasoning for the…

For students who are not science majors, problem-based (PB) laboratories for first-year chemistry provide a more comprehensive experience than conventional expository ones. Implementing PB labs is reasonably easy, as the lab experiments may not need to change; what changes is the way the lab manual is set up and how the actual session is carried…

e-Learning Projects involve the construction by final year students of e-learning resources in project work. Students are supported in a blended training course in which they acquire appropriate skills and critically review eresources of their peers This paper describes innovations in course design that have lead to the evolution of eresources…

A pilot study was conducted using a cohort of 18 students, studying for their Bioscience Masters, and carrying out project work throughout the summer. On arrival for a laboratory class the students were asked to complete a baseline confidence log and answer a knowledge quiz. The confidence log and quiz were developed from ideas suggested in Draper…

Active learning is a teaching methodology with a focus on student-centered learning that engages students in the educational process. This study implemented active learning techniques in an orthopedic assessment laboratory, and the effects of these teaching techniques. Mean scores from written exams, practical exams, and final course evaluations…

Reciprocal peer teaching (RPT), wherein students alternate roles as teacher and learner, has been applied in several educational arenas with varying success. Here, we describe the implementation of a reciprocal peer teaching protocol in a human gross anatomy laboratory curriculum. We compared the outcomes of the RPT class with those of previous…

The efficacy of clay modeling compared with cat dissection for human muscle identification was examined over two semesters at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY. The 181 students in 10 sections in this study were randomly distributed into control (cat dissection) and experimental (clay modeling) groups, and the results of the muscle…

Contemporary science standards stress the importance of highlighting inquiry in the science classroom as one way of learning key concepts. One critical question that needs to be addressed for a range of instructional practices is how opportunities to learn are conceptualized so that students can engage and learn the critical ideas and practices…

This study compares overall laboratory averages and individual test scores along with a student survey to determine the effects of using virtual microscopy in place of optical microscopes in a large undergraduate human anatomy course. T-tests revealed that the first two laboratory examinations (of four) and the overall laboratory averages were…