Pre-Testing for a Powerful Learning Boost | TAPP Radio 3

The newest episode of TAPP Radio is here!



Pre-testing is not just for assessment—it helps learning, too.
A weird sneeze injury.
The Anatomical Society's list of online resources.
How many proteins are there in a cell?

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A recent analysis suggests that a reasonable average number of proteins in a cell is 42 million. How might we incorporate that bit of trivia in our A&P courses? (0:41)

• Scientists Counted All The Protein Molecules in a Cell And The Answer Really Is 42
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The UK's Anatomical Society has put together a list of online resources under the auspices of their Education Committee (4:40)

• Online Resources recommended by the Anatomical Society

Can the explosive power of a sneeze cause injury? You bet. Here's a recently reported case of a rupture of the pharynx. Yikes. (6:11)

• Holding a sneeze can be a literal pain in the neck (includes a video)
• Snap, crackle, and pop: when sneezing leads to crackling in the neck

Pre-Testing isn't just for measuring prior competence before new learning starts. By itself, regardless of its use in course assessment, it's a powerful learning tool. Listen to Kevin's experience with pre-testing in his A&P courses. (10:28)

• Pre-Tests as Student Success Tools (more on Kevin's case study; has links to other resources)
• Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (a great book that includes some info on using pre-tests as a learning strategy)

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Transcript available at the script page.

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Check out the detailed notes and transcript of this episode!

Rhinovirus Replicates Best in the Nasal Cavity

It's that time of year, eh?  Cold and flu season.  And this week we have news from researchers giving us a bit more insight into the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold.

The unsurprising new discovery is that rhinoviruses replicate more efficiently—and therefore cause colds more effectively—in the nasal cavity than in the lungs because of a temperature difference.  In mice, the animals used in the recent study, the immune mechanisms that fight off rhinoviruses work better in the warmer environment of the lung than in the cooler environment of the nasal cavity.

This phenomenon may be why a cold generally doesn't wreak the same havoc in lungs as do other respiratory viruses like influenza viruses.  Rhinoviruses, as their name implies, generally remain limited to the nose.

What can we use from this in teaching undergraduate A&P?

• When discussing the nasal cavity's vascularity and air-warming functions, we may want to point out that understanding the temperature gradient between the nose and lower respiratory tract has practical clinical applications.  Such as why some pathogens are limited to the nose. And why cold weather may contribute to rhinvirus infection.


• When discussing immunology, we may want to mention that body temperature—and sometimes organ temperature—can have an impact on how efficiently our immune mechanisms fight infection.


• One could consider steering a conversation about "there is still no cure for the common cold" to a conversation about the fact that scientists are still working on understanding rhinoviruses—"and, oh, did you hear the latest .....?"

Want to know more?

Where Rhinovirus Replicates Best

• Tracy Vence,  The Scientist.  Online. January 6, 2015.
• Plain-English summary of the discovery.
• my-ap.us/1FgWKr7

Temperature-dependent innate defense against the common cold virus limits viral replication at warm temperature in mouse airway cells

• Ellen F. Foxman, et al.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Online. January 5, 2015. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1411030112 
• Original research paper.
• my-ap.us/1xA4v6m

Photo credit: mcfarlandmo

Shepherd's Apps for Teaching Physiology

Here are some computer-based activities that help students learn specific concepts of physiology produced by veteran professor Pete Shepherd.  Dr. Shepherd has been developing over the course of many years based on his extensive teaching experience.

A while back, I told you about the Life Science Teaching Resource Community and its archive of free teaching and learning resources.  Here's an example of a collection of resources from that archive that your students can use to "play around with" physiological conditions to see what changes occur in the body as a result.  All of them can either be used in the classroom/lab setting or can be used individually by students for self-learning.

Included in the collection are these apps, most of which are available on multiple platforms:

Capillary Pressure, which illustrates the vascular control of capillary hydrostatic pressure.

Alveolar Gas, which lets you study some of the physiological factors that affect the composition of alveolar and expired gases. Such factors include dead space, tidal volume, the frequency of breathing, and the rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. A worksheet is included.

Blood Oxygen, which enables the user to change variables like the PO2, hemoglobin concentration, and hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen and calculate the concentrations of oxygen in the form of oxyhemoglobin and dissolved oxygen. Simulations include anemia, polycythemia, comparing the effects of oxygen inhalation in a pulmonary "patient" with a normal person, carbon monoxide poisoning, hyperbaria, etc., as well as the concepts of the Fick Principle and the arteriovenous oxygen difference.

Pulse Pressure, which simulates the arterial pressure pulse. The user explores factors like heart rate, stroke volume, arterial compliance, and arterial resistance and see how they affect the arterial pulse pressure.

Sat Curves, which allows the user to demonstrate the effects of pH, PCO2, DPG, and temperature on the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve. Two graphs are displayed so that one can serve as a control and compared with the other. Cursors on both graphs can be manipulated to obtain exact readings of oxyhemoglobin saturation as specified PO2s.


If you want to check out these amazing resources, please access them in the Life Science Teaching Resource Community at

my-ap.us/1qD4uHU

Image credit: Shepherd

FREE respiratory images

You already know that I'm slowly adding to the Free Image Library at The A&P Professor website.  I've recently added a few images related to the Respiratory System to the collection.

All the images are either copyright-free or provide a free license to re-use them with permission.  So you can use them to . . .

• Add them to your PowerPoint slides.
  
  
• Use them in handouts or outlines.
  
  
• Use them in tests or worksheets. Many of them have numbered and/or unlabeled versions that make this easy for you.
  
  
• Provide them to students to use for their reports, projects, or concept maps.
  
  
• Use them as icons for your website or learning management system.
  
  
• Illustrate case studies with medical images or clinical procedures.
  
  
• Use pathology images to hammer home concepts of normal anatomy and physiology.
  
  
• Make your own anatomy T-shirts using iron-on transfer paper to print the images.
  
  
• Receive inspiration to become a scientific illustrator.  (Then call me, I can use your help!)

Why not just use the images provided by the publisher of your textbook?

• No textbook contains all the variations of how to draw a structure or concept.  Use alternate images to help drive home a particular point.
  
  
• Students aren't really learning their anatomy and physiology if they memorize a particular diagram.  Using alternate diagrams on worksheets and tests pushes them to learn where things really are in the body. . . not where they happen to be labeled in the book.
  
  
• Textbooks must conserve space to remain a practical tool.  There are many images that would be great to show students . . . such as medical images, portraits of A&P heroes or sources of eponyms, or amazing micrographs . . . that are simply not appropriate for a beginning-level textbook.
  

This image of an iron lung is not appropriate for a textbook, perhaps, but it might help you explain the concept of how pressure affects the mechanics of breathing.

Please send me your ideas for images that you need (maybe I can find them for you).

I'll be updating you when I add more topics to the Free Image Library.

If you have any suggestions for additional subjects for images, let me know and I'll try to find them for you.

Cilia can taste

We know that primary cilia occur in just about every cell . . . and that in many cells these more-or-less nonmotile primary cilia have a sensory function. For example—in the sense of taste. But did you know that the motile cilia found in the lungs have a sensory function, too?

New research shows that the motile cilia of the respiratory airways can sense bitter-tasting molecules . . . a good sign that the molecule is potentially toxic. And researchers showed that these cilia then begin beating faster in response to the bitter compounds.

Yikes! That means that when cilia sense a toxin right there in a specific spot in the airway, they can quickly brush it out of there. Hmmm. How elegant.

Want to know more?

Airway cilia taste toxins
Posted by Bob Grant
The Scientist 23rd July 2009
[Summary of the new findings]

Motile Cilia of Human Airway Epithelia Are Chemosensory
Alok S. Shah, et al.
Science Published Online July 23, 2009 DOI: 10.1126/science.1173869
[The original research article]

BONUS . . .
Click here for a FREE image of bronchiolar cilia (SEM) that you can use in your course.

It's almost too late!

A while back I mentioned all the benefits of participating in HAPS Institute (HAPS-I), the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society's professional continuing education program for A&P professors that offers short, flexible graduate biology courses.

We have four courses that begin soon . . . April 15. These courses involve both online work and sessions at the upcoming 2009 Annual HAPS Conference in Baltimore MD at the end of May.

Two of those courses still have some room in them . . .

Advances in Anatomy & Physiology 2009 (2 graduate credits)

• A great "first experience" in HAPS Institute
• Begins online April 15, 2009
  
• Learners engage the material presented in the conference Update Seminars more fully than just "walking in cold"
• Learners have a chance to discuss the seminar presentations together to find those gems that we can "take back to our classroom."
• Faculty: Ellen Arnestad and Kevin Patton

Advanced Respiratory Biology (2 graduate credits)

• A reprise of last year's wildly popular course
• Explore the "in and outs" of the respiratory system for a fully understanding
• Begins online April 15, 2009
  
• Features master teacher Mary Pat Wenderoth of University of Washington

The program also offers a completely online course . . . but there are only a couple of spots left!

Best Practices in Hybrid & Online Teaching of A&P (2 credits)

• No conference attendance required
• Begins online May 1, 2009
• Taught by online A&P experts Tom Lancraft and Janice Yoder Smith
• Great credential to have in your portfolio!
  

Want more information? Follow these links . . .

• HAPS home page
• HAPS Institute home page
• HAPS Annual Conference home page

• HAPS Institute registration page (use the links in the blue box to the far right)
  
• HAPS Conference registration page (use the links in the blue box to the far right)

Here's the outside of the HAPS-I brochure

(use the frame buttons to ZOOM, then scroll or print)

Here's the inside of the HAPS-I brochure

(use the frame buttons to ZOOM, then scroll or print)

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