Flow cytometry has become an important tool in the fields of veterinary, medicine, and biological sciences in general. However, in the introductory and even in advanced university degree courses, students do not have many opportunities to be in contact with this type of technology. This situation motivated us to design a simple and inexpensive…

Endocrine physiology is a complex subject for students. Game-based learning (GBL) and case-based learning (CBL) are active methodologies that are widely used because of their potential for motivation and greater proximity to the reality of modern students. We evaluated the effectiveness of GBL and CBL among veterinary medicine students compared…

Learning the physiology of the cardiovascular system can be difficult for students, but the use of active teaching methodologies can help and enhance learning. To facilitate the understanding of how the cardiovascular system works, we built a functional model for Veterinary Medicine students attending a cardiovascular physiology lecture and…

Frogs are routinely used in physiology teaching laboratories to demonstrate important physiological processes. There have been recent directives that promote the use of the anesthetic MS-222 (tricaine methanesulfonate), rather than lowering body temperature with a cold water bath to prepare reptiles and amphibians for physiological experiments or…

Learning and retaining science content may be increased by applying the basic science material to real-world situations. Discussing cases with students during lectures and having them participate in laboratory exercises where they apply the science content to practical situations increases students' interest and enthusiasm. A summer course in…

Students are provided with a mystery concerning dogs that are paralyzed. This motivates a laboratory exercise to measure parameters from the dog's "blood" to determine whether the paralysis is due to pesticide poisoning or an autoimmune attack on nerve myelin. Most of the materials are available from the grocery store. The real-world nature of the…

The regulation of the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a particularly important and challenging concept for students to integrate into a memorable framework for building further knowledge and solving clinical problems. In this study, 76 first-year veterinary students and 19 veterinarians in clinical specialty training (house officers)…

We used collaborative group testing in a veterinary physiology course (65 students) to test the hypothesis that all students (e.g., high-performing and low-performing students of each group) benefit from collaborative group testing. In this format, students answered questions in the traditional format as individuals. Immediately after completing…

We used collaborative testing in a veterinary physiology course (65 students) to answer the following questions: 1) do students with individual correct responses or students with individual incorrect responses change their answers during group testing? and 2) do high-performing students make the decisions, that is, are low-performing students…

The course "Management of Fluid and Electrolyte Disorders" is an applied physiology course taught using lectures and paper-based cases. The course approaches fluid therapy from both basic science and clinical perspectives. While paper cases provide a basis for application of basic science concepts, they lack key components of genuine clinical…

A number of statements about well-established information in veterinary anatomy are debated and refuted: (1) sesamoid bones change the direction of tendons, (2) tendons are composed of collagenous connective tissue, (3) anal glands are synonymous with anal sacs, (4) reciprocal apparatus is part of stay apparatus, etc. (Author/MLW)

The use of a laboratory demonstration and discussion period in physiology and pharmacology instruction at the Univeristy of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine is described. The advantages for instruction include lower costs, fewer personnel and animals required, less time required in the curriculum, and increased student attention in class.…

An interdisciplinary physiology and pharmacology course presented by the Medical Interaction Laboratory at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine provides interaction among faculty, conserves faculty time and animal expense, and presents a coordinated laboratory experience. (BH)