Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are produced in the gut as a result of microbial action on ingested dietary fiber and have been associated with several health benefits. Herein an undergraduate student experiment that uses gas chromatography equipped with either a flame ionization detector or mass spectrometer for the analysis and quantitation of…

During the pandemic, the use of question pools for online testing was recommended to mitigate cheating, exposing multitudes of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students across the globe to this practice. Yet instructors may be unfamiliar with the ways that seemingly small changes between questions in a pool can expose…

Potassium is the main intracellular ion in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and is essential for their functions, making potassium one of the most important electrolytes in physiology. In humans, potassium plays a vital role in several physiological functions, including the maintenance of fluid balance, generating the membrane potential of cells,…

The application of physico-chemical principles has been routinely used to explain various physiological concepts. The Nernst equation is one example of this, used to predict the potential difference created by the transmembrane ion gradient resulting from uneven ion distribution within cellular compartments and the interstitial space. This…

Facilitating the learning of physiology by allied health majors who lack foundational coursework in biology and chemistry presents unique pedagogical challenges. By focusing on the strengths of this group of learners (team skills, interest in applied physiology), a new mechanism for conveying the primary interconnection and synergism of the body's…

Learning physiology requires students to apply physical and chemical principles to the study of biological systems. Unfortunately, many undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) students are unprepared for this due to a lack of prerequisite knowledge in physics and chemistry. This lack of prerequisite knowledge of chemistry and physics makes…

The present paper examines whether there exists a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide that is trapped in the surgical facemask during the procedure of respiration and whether the results of the sequestered CO[subscript 2] can have harmful effects on the human organism. In order to answer the research questions, an experiment has been…

We describe a 3-hour session that provides students with the opportunity to review basic lab concepts and important techniques using real life scenarios. We began with two separate student-engaged discussions to remind/reinforce some basic concepts in physiology and review calculations with respect to chemical compounds. This was followed by…

This article describes a simple and inexpensive "shock and awe" classroom demonstration for understanding the importance of carbon dioxide (CO[subscript 2]) in acid-base regulation. Before class, a solution was prepared by adding sodium bicarbonate and universal indicator solution to a sample of distilled water contained in a standard…

Digestion is a fundamentally important process for an individual's life. However, the physical process of digestion is hidden inside the body, making it challenging to understand and a particularly difficult topic for students to learn in the classroom. Traditional approaches to teaching body processes include a mixture of textbook teaching and…

Assessment and evaluation tools and instruments are developed to measure many things from content knowledge to misconceptions to student affect. The standard validation processes for these are regularly conducted and provide strong evidence for the validity of the measurements that are made. As part of the suite of validation tools available to…

Information processing provides a powerful model for understanding how learning occurs and highlights the important role that cognitive load plays in this process. In instances in which the cognitive load of a problem exceeds the available working memory, learning can be seriously hindered. Previously reported methods for measuring cognitive load…

The Read CO[subscript]2 rebreathing method (Read DJ. "A clinical method for assessing the ventilatory response to carbon dioxide." "Australas Ann Med" 16: 20-32, 1967) provides a simple and reproducible approach for studying the chemical control of breathing. It has been widely used since the modifications made by Duffin and…

Promoting student engagement and academic achievement in first-year anatomy and physiology courses. "Adv Physiol Educ" 43: 443-450, 2019; doi:10.1152/advan.00205.2018. Students from three undergraduate programs at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, studying combined first-year anatomy and physiology courses, showed different…

This work presents a three-dimensional (3D) modeling exercise for undergraduate students in chemistry and health sciences disciplines, focusing on a protein-group linked to immune system regulation. Specifically, the exercise involves molecular modeling and structural analysis of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) proteins, both wild type and mutant. The…