Engaging Students Equitably in Biological Systems Modeling

Abstract

It has been my goal as an educator to engage students in meaningful and innovative assessments that are hands‐on, engage their creativity and improve their interdisciplinary understanding. At the same time, the engagement need to be equitable as well, to recognize each student for their individuality and creativity. To this end, I created my Pathophysiology course with the objective of teaching students how to model biological systems. The course is a one semester course that is based on homeostasis maintenance in the body and how homeostatic disruptions result in symptoms of pathologies. Students are required to understand how homeostasis is maintained in individual organ systems and encouraged to model their understanding of homeostatic disruptions in ways other than biology, such as computer science and mathematics. This gives them an opportunity to use their creativity as well as apply their learning in other disciplines to create an interdisciplinary model of a biological system. Students have indicated that they appreciate being able to use their creative talents and non‐biological skills to model biological systems. Being able to use their non‐biological skills in a biology elective both encourages their problem solving skills and gives them confidence. Student learning is assessed through pre and post assessments and shows significant improvement in student understanding.Promoting equity in assessments has been challenging. There is a need to recognize the individual skills and learning patterns of each student and allow for this in creating assessments. I decided to replace two written assessments with hands on projects such as the heart model project and the graphic novels project. My purpose was to minimize memorization and promote integrative learning in a fun way. The heart model project replaced the cardiovascular system unit test. A variety of materials are provided to students for making life sized heart models, and instructor approval of student blueprints is required before beginning construction. Extra credit is offered if the model “works”. A second assessment, the graphic novel project, replaced student presentations and were much preferred by the students for the opportunities offered to demonstrate their drawing and creative skills. Every student felt included (as indicated on their surveys) and enjoyed the interdisciplinary integration of modeling in the course, an exercise in logical thinking that is applicable to any other discipline as well.