A Conceptual Framework for the Core Concept of Mass Balance

Abstract

The core concepts of physiology are descriptions of phenomena that have great explanatory power in every area of physiology. They are “big ideas” that are comprised of many smaller ideas. The process of “unpacking” a core concept yields a hierarchically arranged statement of the sub‐ideas that we have called a conceptual framework (CF). Our goal has been to produce CFs that will facilitate teaching and learning physiology.We have unpacked three of the core concepts (homeostasis, flow down gradients, and cell‐cell communication) and validated the resulting conceptual frameworks with feedback from the physiology teaching community; this work has been reported in Advances in Physiology Education.Here we present our conceptual framework for the core concept of mass balance (conservation of mass). This core concept (and its CF) describes the consequences of moving mass (liquids, gases, solids) into and out of defined compartments. These ideas are applicable at every level of organization in the organism.We will solicit feedback to validate the framework and its applicability to various levels of physiology instruction.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.