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THE PHYSIOLOGY TEACHER
Harold I. Modell: The 2004 Claude Bernard Distinguished Lecturer
The highest honor within the Teaching of Physiology Section is to be selected to present the Claude Bernard Lecture during the Experimental Biology Meetings. The 2004 recipient was Harold I. Modell, PhD, who currently is Director, Physiology Educational Consortium, in Seattle, WA. His presentation, "Evolution of an Educator: Lesson Learned and Challenges Ahead" has been published in the September 2004 issue of Advances In Physiology.
After receiving his advanced degree in Physiology in 1971 from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, he assumed teaching and research responsibilities in the Department of Physiology at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he remained for four years before joining the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. This affiliation has continued since 1992, and he has been an Affiliate Associate Professor of Physiology. It is of interest that between 1981 and 1989, he had academic appointments and affiliations with Medicine, Radiology, and the Virginia Mason Research Center. In 1986, he became the Director of the National Resources for Computers in Life Science Education and in 1989, he established the Harold Modell, Educational Consulting/Materials Development Company in the Seattle area. Finally, in 1997, he became a part-time Professor in the Basic Sciences at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA.
Dr. Modell’s teaching responsibilities at the University of Washington have consisted of being a lecturer and discussion leader in human, cardiovascular, and respiratory physiology to nursing, graduate, dental, and nursing students. He served as the Module tutor of the respiratory system when the Medical School initiated a Self-Paced Curricular Track. In addition, he was instrumental in having the University schedule a new course for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and Life Science faculty that was entitled Promoting Active Learning in the Life Science Classroom. Since becoming a Professor in the Basic Sciences at Bastyr University, he has assumed responsibility for teaching human physiology to naturopathy medical students. In this course he creates an active learning environment in which students create models of physiological systems to use in solving physiological problems. He assesses student performance with problem solving examinations using multiple-choice questions, essays, and short answers. In addition, he has responsibility for a neuroscience course, which includes a laboratory period. The course is centered around identifying lesion sites responsible for clinical signs and symptoms or for predicting sites from known signs and symptoms. As with all his courses, he creates an active learning environment and assesses performance in accordance with the goals of the course.
Dr. Modell was among the first to advocate and demonstrate the value of computers and computer models in teaching physiology in classroom and laboratory environments. In addition, he has championed the need for creating an active learning environment with the classroom. In the 30 years that have elapsed since his first presentation concerned with teaching (Fed Proc 33: 389, 1974), he has published more than 30 manuscripts, participated in 35 teaching workshops, was a featured speaker at 21 symposia, panels, or seminars while being highlighted in eight short courses and two tutorials for teachers. These activities have occurred in numerous universities and cities within the United States, Puerto Rico, and Turkey.
Unknown to many, in 1988, Dr. Modell became the founding Editor of American Journal of Physiology: Advances in Physiology Education. Since the completion of his term, he spent seven years as an Associate Editor and currently serves the Journal as a member of its Editorial Board. Other editorial responsibilities include being Editor for Computers in Life Science Education and being a member of the Editorial Board of Science Software.
When queried about what the American Physiological Society should consider to improve the teaching of physiology in colleges and universities, he provided the following perspective.
First, the Society must recognize and address the issue that many instructors teaching physiology do not have adequate training in integrative systemic physiology and/or an understanding of responsible mechanisms. The magnitude of the issue indicates that amelioration requires more than a 2- to 4-hour session scheduled at an Experimental Biology meeting. Consequently, he recommends APS sponsorship of three day workshops by select faculty members throughout the United States that would provide "mechanistic models of physiological systems" to those in attendance.
Second, the Society must acknowledge that many teachers of physiology have not received adequate training in educational techniques and continue to believe their responsibilities are to dispense information rather than to facilitate learning. He believes this issue can be addressed by having workshops on the topic scheduled at future Experimental Biology meetings, and by the Editors of Advances establishing specific columns within the Journal that are focused on this topic. It is presumed that he would be a contributing author to these columns.
Robert G. Carroll: Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the Year
For 2004, the prestigious Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the Year Award was presented to Robert G. Carroll, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Department of Physiology, Brody School of Medicine, at East Carolina University, in Greenville, NC. Before his appointment to East Carolina University in 1984, he secured his advanced degree in Physiology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with Dr. David D. Opdyke as his Advisor. Subsequently, he accepted a three-year postdoctoral appointment atthe University of Mississippi with Dr. Thomas E. Lohmeier and Arthur C. Guyton serving as mentors.
After his appointment, Prof. Carroll assumed various teaching responsibilities within the Department. Currently, he is the Director for the Medical Physiology Course and serves as lecturer of select topics and as a small group leader for a class of 72 medical and 8 graduate students. In addition, he provides the renal lectures in a team taught Physical Therapy Course and is responsible for an advanced graduate class (3 hours) in Translational Physiology. This interesting course examines a select number of disease that cover the physiological spectrum of molecular deficits to system malfunctions. The class is organized so that approximately two weeks are devoted to each disease with recent research articles serving as the primary template for the course content. One objective of the course is to facilitate a critical analysis of the research literature and its significance. Besides oral examinations, open-ended essays are used to evaluate student performance. One advantage of this approach is that it familiarizes students with the format followed with their subsequent comprehensive examinations.
Recipients of the Guyton Award must demonstrate a commitment to the improvement of physiology education within their home institution. In Dr. Carroll’s case, he first demonstrated that he was a memorable teacher by repeatedly receiving awards from graduating classes as an Outstanding Teacher. As course director of Medical Physiology and Chairman of a Medical School Task Force for Faculty Development, he provided example, counsel and leadership to the participating faculty on how to become an effective teacher and educator within a medical school curriculum.
Recipients must also demonstrate significant contributions to physiology education at local, national, and international levels. Within the Teaching Section, he has served as Councilor and as its Chair. Under his leadership, the Education Committee established an APS Archives of Teaching Resources, completed a Medical Physiology Core Learning Objectives Project that has been approved by the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology (ACDP), finalized an APS/ACDP document on Professional Skills for Trainees, and has undertaken a survey of undergraduate physiology instruction to determine how the Society can identify and attract the "best and the brighest" to physiology graduate education. For the past 11 years he has been an Associate Editor for Advances in Physiology Education.
Dr. Carroll is a Member of the National Board of Medical Examiners and is involved with the design, presentation, and evaluation of multiple choice physiology questions. At the international level, he serves on the IUPS Teaching Commission, and attends meetings of the International Association of Medical Science Educators. For IUPS, he edited a report on the "Objectives for training physiologist to teach Physiology" and was a major contributor to their "Teaching Laboratory Manual." Finally, Professor Carroll has been an invited speaker on physiology education in Hungary, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, and in Scotland.
To improve and to enhance the teaching of physiology, he believes APS must continue to recognize the importance of quality education and to provide the level of support that was available to complete the archival and ACDP projects. In addition, the Society must accept the challenges of "shaping" the national curricula and of "retaining" physiology as an integral component of high school and undergraduate education.
RECOGNITION
Daniel Richardson: An Outstanding Teacher at the University of Kentucky
In 2004, Daniel Richardson, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physiology in the Department of Physiology within the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, received two teaching awards from the University. The first was the Provost Award for Outstanding Teaching. This award involves all the Colleges within the institution and he was one of five selected from approximately 1,800 instructors teaching 25,000 students. Support letters from faculty and students were necessary for consideration by an all campus panel selected by the Provost. The second was the Holsinger Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award is confined to faculty within the Medical Center and requires supporting letters from Course Directors. He was selected from a pool of 28 faculty members who were responsible for teaching physiology to approximately 1,000 students. Professor Richardson received his degree in Physiology from Indiana University in 1969 and after a year as a postdoctoral student with the renown Dr. Benjamin Zweifach at the University of California at San Diego, joined the Department in 1970. However, since 1994, he has devoted full time to teaching and physiology education. During this interval, he taught physiology to fourth-grade elementary students, freshmen, and upperclassmen, beginning and advanced graduate students, and to medical students.
During the year when he was nominated for the awards mentioned above, he team taught or was solely responsible for the following: Elementary Physiology, Principles of Human Physiology, Medical Physiology, Case Studies in Physiology, Body Function in Healthy Living, The Biology of Aging, and Teaching the Basic Medical Sciences. Not included is an Honors course for non-majors in the College of Arts and Sciences entitled "Environment and the Human Organism."
To prepare graduate students for their teaching responsibilities, Professor Richardson designed and organized the course entitled "Teaching the Basic Medical Science." This course provides the theoretical foundation and the practical experiences necessary for class room teaching and has become an important component of their graduate training. In addition, he has written extensively on active learning methods, situation approaches to teaching basic physiology, and on the efficacy of computer-assisted instruction. For the interested reader, they can be found in previous issues of Advances in Physiology Education.
Dr. Richardson has served as Chair of Teaching of Physiology Section, was a charter member of the Physiology Education Research Consortium, and currently functions as an Associate Editor for Advances in Physiology. With grant support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, he had a major role in redesigning the medical physiology course at Kentucky. This experience was put to good use when he was invited withBritish colleagues to design and teach the inaugural course in medical physiology at the University of Transkei in South Africa.
Mary Anne Rokitka: An Outstanding Teacher at the University of Buffalo
In April of this year, Mary Anne Rokitka, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor of Physiology and Associate Dean for Biomedical Undergraduate Education at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, was selected to receive the Milton Plesur Excellence in Teaching Award because of her dedicated commitment to students and the quality of her teaching. This coveted university award is directed by The University of Buffalo Undergraduate Student Association who select finalists (
20 instructors) from student evaluations and classroom visitations. In essence, it is truly a student award!
The Department of Physiology and Biophysics offers seven undergraduate courses that have an enrollment in excess of 1,300 students. Dean Rokitka was selected while teaching classes in Human Physiology and Applied Physiology, of which the latter was devoted to pathophysiology conditions. Being recognized as an outstanding teacher is not a new experience for her as she previously was a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award that is granted by the Chancellor of the State of New York.
GRANTMANSHIP
Dee Silverthorn, Joel Michael, and Marsha Matyas: "Physiology for the 21st Century: A Sourcebook for Inexpensive and Economical Experiments"
The National Science Foundation has awarded a three year grant to Drs. Dee Silverthorn of the University of Texas at Austin, Joel Michael of Rusch Medical College in Chicago, and to Marsha Matyas of the APS Education Office in Bethesda, MD. This $185,429 award is to create a resource of inexpensive but pedagogically based laboratory activities that will be suitable for K–12, undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. The design is to use, revise or adapt laboratory exercises from the 1967 APS Laboratory Experiments in General Physiology and the 1991 IUPS Sourcebook of Practical Experiments to achieve its objectives. Before the project will be available for the 21st century, it will receive peer review from a panel of distinguished physiology educators.
Barbara E. Goodman: "South Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network"
Dr. Barbara E. Goodman, Professor of Physiology, Director of Special Programs and Science Education in the School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota and Principal Investigator, has been notified by the National Institute of Health that her grant application entitled the "South Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network" has been renewed for the next five years for the amount of $16,148,165.
This institutional grant concerned with achieving a network of biomedical research excellence is directed toward students and faculty in predominately undergraduate institutions and tribal colleges to facilitate their research and science experiences while enhancing their opportunities for a career in the biomedical sciences. Dr. Goodman will direct funds to various higher education institutions in South Dakota to support a critical mass of researchers on the control of cell growth with an emphasis in proteomics, genomics, and bioinformatics. In addition, she will facilitate support for research faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, core facilities, and for improvement of the biomedical research infrastructure within the state.
Johanna Krontiris-Litowitz: Recipient of a 2004 APS Teaching Career Enhancement Award
A Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Youngstown State University in Ohio, Dr. Johanna Krontiris-Litowitz will use her $4,000 award to help students develop conceptual models of homeostatic control by using manipulatives as a learning tool. The rationale being that educational research has shown that forming a conceptual model of information is an important process in learning and higher-order thinking. Since conceptual models of homeostasis and its control mechanisms are presented extensively in physiology as diagrams and flow models, she theorizes that visual representations will facilitate the understanding of homeostasis and its application in novel situations. To test her theory, students will function collaboratively to solve classroom problems and laboratory exercises using a manipulative composed of a magnetic board and a magnetic kits of organs, arrows, key works, etc. Assessment of the effectiveness of the manipulative will include written exams scores, responses from student interviews, instructor observations, the results from surveys of student attitudes, and scores from a self-assessment of learning.
If the results demonstrate that the manipulative is an effective tool for building conceptual models of homeostatic mechanisms while promoting learning and higher-order thinking, Dr. Krontiris-Litowitz will consider the possibility of submitting a NSF proposal to explore large scale development and further testing of the manipulative.
Hirofumi Tanaka: Recipient of a 2004 APS Teaching Career Enhancement Award
An Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Hirofumi Tanaka plans to use her award funds to visit Prof. Sanjeev G. Shroff at the University of Pittsburgh to learn his computer simulation program designed to teach physiological concepts. Dr. Shroff is the Gerald E. McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering at the university who is acknowledged for having developed successful physiology laboratory simulation software programs. His programs use mathematical models to answer "what if" questions about the function of physiological systems, and is formulated around an interactive on-screen textbook that contains animations, quizzes, and illustrations. Dr. Tanaka’s goal is to learn from Prof. Shroff how to create and customize the Texas curriculum with computer simulation exercises.
After returning to the Department, Dr. Tanaka plans to initiate, integrate, and to customize the computer-assisted simulation of clinical physiological functions. She expects the incorporation of computer-assisted simulations to enhance learning, increase the amount of practical information that canbe presented, and to improve the decision-making processes of her students.
If you have been honored as a physiology educator or have received a grant for educational research and would like to submit an announcement for publication, please use the APS Central submission process (www.apscentral.org). Photographs to accompany announcements must be submitted as gif or tif files. For additional information about "The Physiology Teacher," contact the Associate Editor, Dr. Charles Tipton, at tipton{at}u.arizona.edu.
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