Advances in Physiology Education最新文献

{"title":"Interactive visualization of enzyme kinetics: a shiny app for biomedical, pharmacology, and biochemistry education.","authors":"Claire L Price, J Gareth Noble, Aidan Seeley","doi":"10.1152/advan.00294.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00294.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding enzyme kinetics is fundamental in biomedical science, pharmacology, and biochemistry, yet students often struggle to interpret kinetic models and relate them to biological function. To support learning in this area, an interactive web-based tool, the Kinetics Analysis App, was developed using the Shiny framework in R. The application enables users to input experimental or example data and compare four classical models of enzyme kinetics: Michaelis-Menten, Lineweaver-Burk, Eadie-Hofstee, and Hanes-Woolf. Real-time visualization of fitted curves and parameter estimates (<i>V</i>_max and <i>K</i>_m) allows learners to explore how model choice, data variability, and substrate concentration influence kinetic interpretation. The tool supports scaffolded, constructivist, and multimedia learning approaches, lowering mathematical barriers and encouraging hypothesis-driven exploration. Designed for integration into laboratory classes, flipped learning, or independent study, the app promotes critical thinking and enhances conceptual understanding of kinetic modeling. Informal student feedback indicates increased confidence and clarity when interpreting enzyme kinetics compared with traditional spreadsheet-based approaches. The Kinetics Analysis App therefore offers a scalable and accessible method to improve quantitative skills and deepen pedagogical engagement with enzyme kinetics.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> Students often find enzyme kinetics difficult because mathematical models can appear disconnected from biological meaning. The freely available Kinetics Analysis App was created to help address this challenge. Through interactive visualization of four classical kinetic models, learners are able to explore parameter estimation and model selection in real time. This web-based tool supports active learning, improves confidence in data interpretation, and provides an accessible approach for teaching quantitative concepts in biomedical and pharmacological sciences.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"1110-1116"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of a 3-D cell membrane model combined with an interactive online platform on health students' learning of cellular physiology.","authors":"Ana Carolina de Souza da Rosa, Giulia Azevedo Martinez, Anna Cecília Perreto, Nelson Gustavo Novais Marinho, Larissa de Almeida Dias, Cláudio Felipe Kolling da Rocha, Pâmela Billig Mello-Carpes","doi":"10.1152/advan.00267.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00267.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding cellular physiology, particularly transport across the plasma membrane, remains a significant challenge for undergraduate health sciences students, as these microscopic processes are inherently difficult to visualize. Innovative teaching strategies, such as three-dimensional (3-D) models, may enhance students' comprehension of these concepts. This study investigated the impact of a 3-D cell membrane puzzle model combined with an interactive online platform on learning about membrane transport. Undergraduate nursing and physical therapy students participated in the activity during a practical class, and learning outcomes were assessed with pre- and posttests, as well as subjective evaluations. The results demonstrated an improvement in students' self-perceived knowledge of the main mechanisms of membrane transport and highlighted the importance of assessing students' knowledge in addition to self-perception. These findings suggest that playful and interactive tools can effectively support the teaching and learning of complex physiological concepts.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> Cell membranes are invisible to the naked eye, yet vital to life. For health care students, understanding transport across membranes can be challenging. This study combined a 3-D puzzle model with an online platform to make these processes tangible and easier to grasp. Students who used this interactive approach improved their self-perception of cellular function, showing that playful, hands-on educational strategies can facilitate learning of complex biological concepts and promote greater engagement in the learning process.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"1045-1054"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148686569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effectiveness of practicing with an e-learning tool based on an error-driven learning algorithm in physiology education.","authors":"Akihiro Kimura, Seigen Fumimoto","doi":"10.1152/advan.00042.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00042.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Physiology is an essential component of clinical education. However, because physiology requires understanding of causal mechanisms and integrated physiological processes, many healthcare students experience difficulties during the early stages of learning, particularly when prior knowledge is insufficient. These difficulties may increase the risk of subsequent academic problems. Therefore, effective approaches are required to support introductory physiology education. In this study, we developed an e-learning tool conceptually based on error-driven learning theory and implemented it in a physiology course for first-year students at a health science university. Unlike conventional tools, this tool was designed to support correction of incorrect recall by linking feedback on errors with the selection of subsequent questions. We then evaluated the effectiveness of the tool using objective measures from students' activity logs and final examination performance. More repetitions were associated not only with higher accuracy on practice questions but also with higher final examination scores, even after adjusting for preadmission academic aptitude test scores and initial accuracy. These results suggest that, in the early stages of the course, engagement with the e-learning tool was associated with improved examination performance, even after adjusting for baseline academic aptitude and prior knowledge, although causal inference is limited by the observational design. Therefore, e-learning tools designed to emphasize error-driven learning may provide an effective approach to support early-stage physiology education for healthcare students.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> We developed an e-learning tool conceptually based on error-driven learning and implemented it in a first-year physiology course. The tool was designed to support correction of incorrect recall through repeated corrective feedback. Using objective measures derived from student activity logs, we showed that the number of repeated practices was significantly associated with learning improvement and final examination scores, even after adjusting for baseline academic aptitude and initial accuracy. This approach may support introductory physiology education.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"1031-1044"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148664849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Moving beyond check-the-box attendance: a token-based approach to encouraging meaningful UTA session participation.","authors":"James T Davis","doi":"10.1152/advan.00157.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00157.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) can provide valuable peer-supported learning opportunities in large physiology courses, but encouraging students to use these resources meaningfully can be challenging. In a large flipped undergraduate human physiology course, students were initially required to attend UTA-led review sessions for a small number of course points. Although this attendance-point system increased session use, it also produced unintended consequences. Near the end of course units and especially near the end of the semester, attendance often increased sharply as students attended primarily to earn points rather than to engage with physiology content. These crowded sessions were difficult for UTAs to manage and reduced the value of the sessions for students seeking help. To address this problem, direct attendance points were replaced with a future-oriented token system. Students earned tokens by actively participating in two UTA-led review sessions, and tokens could be used only on future coursework, such as making up selected missed assignments or revising missed exam questions. This article describes the rationale, design, implementation, and lessons learned from this token system. Although the change was not implemented as a formal education research study, instructor and UTA observations suggest that the token system may have reduced check-the-box attendance and better aligned the incentive with the intended purpose of the sessions: proactive, collaborative engagement with physiology content. This model may be useful for instructors seeking to encourage help seeking without directly awarding points for attendance.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> This article describes a future-oriented token system used to encourage meaningful participation in undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA)-led review sessions in a large undergraduate physiology course. Rather than awarding points for attendance, students earned limited-use tokens by actively participating in two sessions. The approach shifted the incentive away from check-the-box attendance and toward proactive help seeking, repeated engagement, and collaborative learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"1093-1099"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Teaching Contemporary Lactate Physiology: Why It Is Time to Retire \"Lactic Acid\".","authors":"Kyle R Barnes","doi":"10.1152/advan.90063.2026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.90063.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The terminology used to teach physiology should reflect contemporary scientific understanding. Although decades of research have fundamentally transformed our understanding of lactate biology, the term lactic acid remains widely used throughout physiology education, textbooks, coaching education, certification programs, and public communication. Under physiological conditions, however, lactate-not lactic acid-is the predominant molecular species, and modern evidence recognizes lactate as an oxidative fuel, signaling molecule, and regulator of metabolism rather than a metabolic waste product. This Perspective argues that physiology education should preferentially adopt terminology consistent with contemporary lactate biology. We discuss the historical origins of the term lactic acid, summarize the scientific advances that have reshaped our understanding of lactate physiology, and propose a practical educational framework for communicating these concepts across diverse learning environments. Aligning educational language with contemporary scientific evidence represents more than a matter of scientific precision; it provides an opportunity to strengthen conceptual understanding while improving the teaching and communication of exercise physiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149082652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Gastrointestinal Circuit\": an active learning approach to enhance understanding of human digestive system physiology.","authors":"Ana Clara de Gouvêa Fernandes, Kênia Moreno de Oliveira, Gabriela Moreira Soares, Juliana Oriel de Oliveira, Joel Alves da Silva Junior, Marina Dos Santos Carvalho, Helena Cristina de Lima Barbosa, Everardo Magalhães Carneiro","doi":"10.1152/advan.00089.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00089.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Physiology education often faces challenges such as limited instructional time, complex content, and low student engagement, leading to high failure rates. This study introduces the \"Gastrointestinal Circuit,\" a low-cost, active learning activity using large visual materials and interactive tasks to enhance undergraduate teaching of gastrointestinal physiology. Seventy students from Nursing, Speech-Language Pathology, and Biological Sciences participated in a pretest-posttest design and opinion survey. Results showed significant learning gains (P ≤ 0.05), particularly in the areas of gastrointestinal hormones and the enteric nervous system, as well as high student satisfaction. Additionally, the 2023 cohort, which participated in the \"Gastrointestinal Circuit\" activity, outperformed the 2022 cohort, which received only traditional lecture-based instruction, on related exam questions (P = 0.0035). These findings suggest that the \"Gastrointestinal Circuit\" is an effective and engaging tool for improving physiology education, with potential for further refinement.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149009432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"University outreach through active learning strategies for neuroscience education: a report of the Brain Awareness Week held in Uruguaiana, Brazil, in March 2025.","authors":"Bruna Tarasuk Trein Crespo, Pâmella Andréa Machado da Silva Laranja Pinto, Thalia Müller de Oliveira, Manoel Lagreca Fan, Luciano da Silva Junior, Tamires Dos Santos Paiva, Ana Luiza Trombini Tadielo, Patrícia A Batista da Rosa, Pâmela Billig Mello-Carpes","doi":"10.1152/advan.00293.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00293.2025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"768-771"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147943521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"GutDigest: a new game to enhance active learning and assessment of gastrointestinal digestion of macromolecules.","authors":"Abdullateef Isiaka Alagbonsi, Toyin Mohammed Salman, Mary Oluwatobi Dada, Elijah Seun Okedun, Aminat Abiola Ajibola, Aolat Adepeju Adepoju, Kazeem Adewale Gbolagade, Fernanda Klein Marcondes","doi":"10.1152/advan.00308.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00308.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Several educators have developed educational games to promote the teaching and learning of complex concepts in physiology and other biomedical sciences. However, none of the currently available games specifically addressed the digestion of macromolecules across the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In this study, we describe our new initiative of developing an online educational game (GutDigest) that helps students understand this complex topic. GutDigest has 3 sections (section 1 for carbohydrate, section 2 for lipid, and section 3 for protein digestion) across which 17 immovable e-tokens (representing the enzymes) are placed in the first column of the board on the left side (6 for carbohydrates, 5 for lipids, and 6 for proteins). Likewise, it has 122 movable e-tokens (representing enzyme source, classification, substrate, major site of action, end product of digestion, and means of enterocyte absorption of the corresponding end products) scattered in the repository on the right side (43 for carbohydrates, 36 for lipids, and 43 for proteins). Matching from right to left sides can be done either by dragging or by tapping and dropping. The results of the 3 sections are displayed to the player after each trial, and the e-tokens are reshuffled for the next trials. We recommend the use of this game by tutors to complement the teaching of this complex topic, assess the knowledge of students, and support practical simulation sessions in resource-limited settings. With its formative assessment-like feedback, this game enhances personalized learning for students compared to traditional study methods.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> We describe the development of GutDigest, a new online educational game, to enhance the teaching, learning, and assessment of macromolecular digestion, which is a complex topic in gastrointestinal physiology courses across various curricula of medical and health science programs globally. The game will be a useful revision resource for students and an assessment tool for tutors to gauge their knowledge after being exposed to preliminary teaching of the topic.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"804-812"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148145400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Countercurrent multiplication revisited: key conceptual updates and framework expansion.","authors":"Serena Y Kuang","doi":"10.1152/advan.00265.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00265.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Building on my 2023 paper (Kuang SY. <i>Adv Physiol Educ</i> 47: 665-671, 2023), this article revisits countercurrent multiplication (CCM) and makes three advances. First, it presents an enlarged, detailed, classroom-ready diagram that illustrates how the corticopapillary osmotic gradient (OG_ISF) emerges, and it further refines the previously proposed concept of the Na⁺-K⁺-2Cl^- cotransporter (NKCC2) activity gradient (AG_NKCC2) along the thick ascending limb (TAL) into the NKCC2 transport rate gradient (RG_NKCC2), a more inclusive formulation for explaining the formation of the OG_ISF. Second, it reinterprets ΔOC, the transepithelial osmotic difference across the TAL, as an emergent, system-level outcome produced collectively by many TALs and amplified cycle by cycle during CCM. Third, it expands the earlier CCM-equilibrium renal osmoregulation framework by reconceptualizing renal osmoregulation as a highly dynamic and adaptive regulatory system. In this framework, renal osmoregulation operates within a continuously regulated regime punctuated by episodic CCM activation. CCM represents an intrinsic regulatory mechanism that may be activated intermittently to produce transient, steplike increases in urine-concentrating ability when the prevailing regulatory regime alone cannot meet osmoregulatory demand for maintaining body fluid balance. This reframing offers a physiologically plausible account of how renal osmoregulation operates over time. Together, these advances may provide a clearer, classroom-friendly picture of renal osmoregulation and suggest testable ideas for future research.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> This article makes three advances in renal osmoregulation education and research. It provides a classroom-ready diagram to teach the emergence of the corticopapillary osmotic gradient and refines key countercurrent multiplication (CCM) concepts from my prior work. It reframes the transepithelial osmotic difference (ΔOC) as a system-level parameter amplified cycle by cycle during CCM. It also expands the CCM-equilibrium renal osmoregulation framework by reconceptualizing renal osmoregulation as a more dynamic, physiologically plausible operating regime punctuated by CCM episodes.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"739-746"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147943485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Principles of interval training: a practical and physiological teaching guide for educators.","authors":"Rachel Isaiah, Victor Routier, Ole J Kemi","doi":"10.1152/advan.00315.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/advan.00315.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We teach that physical activity, exercise, and exercise training are good for us and that the positive effect is better if we exercise with intensity; the greater the intensity, the greater the effect. Indeed, there is clear and irrefutable evidence of intensity dependence of effect, stemming from a dose-response relationship between effort going into the exercise and the result coming out of it. This leads to the situation where we generally and practically prescribe exercise as intensely as possible, for as long as possible, but this comes in conflict with the speed/power:duration relationship that dictates how long high-intensity exercise may be sustained. The solution we have is high-intensity interval training, referred to as HIIT or just interval training. This is a modality of exercise training that with repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise interspersed by active/passive recovery periods permits accumulation of intense exercise beyond that which would be achievable in a single exercise bout. This is then applied to a range of exercises and locomotion modes. However, while we often refer to and teach concepts of intensity dependence of exercise training effects, we rarely describe the basics of the actual exercise. Here, we introduce interval training, and by association, intensity, for the physiology-savvy, but nonexercise science educator. We conceptualize the principles of interval training and provide a practical framework and lesson plan for teaching appropriate interval training.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> We teach that we should do intense exercise. However, intense exercise is difficult to do and to teach. This poses a problem. Interval training is the practical solution. It offers a time-efficient way of carrying out intense exercise. However, teaching its principles requires nuance, which educators must be wary of when teaching sport and exercise science and physical education classes. This article provides a teaching- and educator-focused introduction to interval training.</p>","PeriodicalId":50852,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Physiology Education","volume":" ","pages":"772-783"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148007332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}