University of Oregon

Microcomputing Laboratory for Integrative Learning in Physiology

Purpose of Project:

This project, guided by a pedagogy for teaching science that emphasizes open-ended problem solving, developed two microcomputer-based laboratories and a fault identification game for teaching physiology. Within these simulated laboratories, "realistic" problems capture the essence of science as it is practiced in that problem solvers must recognize that a solution proceeds by multiple pathways with competing, simultaneous hypotheses. Simulation exercises teach students integrated problem solving while eliminating the need to use live animals and costly equipment in laboratory experiments.

Innovative Features:

Project staff developed two microcomputer simulation programs, Cardiovascular Systems and Dynamics (CVSAD) and Pulmonary Mechanics Laboratory (PML), to answer the limitations of traditional wet laboratories. These microcomputer-based laboratories, or microworlds, present a wealth of experimental features, simulating either a single animal in many organic preparations or many animals in a single preparation. Students can manipulate properties and observe behaviors at both the isolated component and the integrated system levels.

The simulations permit students to perform experiments that are conceptually significant, but realistically difficult or impossible. CVSAD and PML stress self-directed exploration. Their non-tutorial methodology requires that students participate actively in the formulation of hypotheses and the design of experiments to test those hypotheses. In order to acquire new knowledge, students must exercise their abilities to pose relevant questions and perform revealing experiments. Learning is a dynamic process of both exploration and discovery and students develop and refine the intellectual skills for using knowledge in practical ways such as arriving at diagnoses and designing therapies. Both programs run on IBM PC or compatible computers with color graphics and 8087 math co-processor.

Evaluation:

Evaluation focused on students' ability to master complex systems rather than individual components of systems, especially through the Fault Identification Game (FIG) for diagnosing physiologic problems. The aim was to measure students' transition from unconnected, non-integrated thinking to richly connected, integrated problem solving.

To this end, an evaluation of the FIG was undertaken involving 40 veterinary medicine students. All had had conventional lectures as introduction to the cardiovascular system. A pre-test instrument collected data that allowed project staff to construct students' mental maps of cardiovascular system properties. Then students solved 50 diagnostic problems in an early version of the FIG. A post-test collected data from which second mental maps were constructed. The pre- and post-test maps were compared to learn whether the FIG had enhanced students' ability to solve problems by synthesizing knowledge, i.e., the way experts do.

The two simulations of laboratories were evaluated in use through student and faculty feedback as they experienced the systems. Students reported that they had little trouble using the simulations, appreciated the elimination of live animals in laboratory work, and felt they learned more this way. Faculty reported that the graphical tutors created to introduce complex concepts in the simulations saved them significant instructional time and improved the quality of their examinations by allowing them to ask deeper more probing questions.

Impact or Changes From Grant Activities:

Evaluation results showed the use of the fault game altered students' mental maps in (1) shifting from early emphasis on anatomic features to the functional interactions among system parts, and (2) scoring on post-test mental maps that was significantly closer to the test scores of experienced scientists. The evaluation showed that students learned to make connections between system components as the scientists did. Thus, the fault-finding exercise was effective in teaching integrative thinking for these students.

More than 130 sites worldwide, including western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have purchased one or more copies of the first simulation program, CVSAD. Fully one-third of the U.S. medical schools own it. It is also being used in graduate and professional schools of pharmacy and veterinary medicine. Several undergraduate biology departments have incorporated it into their curricula as well. CVSAD users have readily adopted the pulmonary program, and some have even requested an adequate supply of software and student manuals to develop a whole physiology course. Below are sites that have purchased CVSAD.

Institutions that have one copy of CVSAD:
Arizona, University of
Arkansas, University of
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institution, Md.
British Columbia, University of, Canada
Calgary, University of, Canada
California State University
California, University of, Berkeley
California, University of, Davis
California, University of, San Diego
City University of New York
Colorado State University
Cornell University, N.Y.
Duke University, N.C.
F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co., Switzerland
Iowa State University
Johns Hopkins University, Md.
University of Kansas
Loyola University, III.
Massachusetts General Hospital
McGill University,
Canada Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Ill.
New Mexico, University of
New York State University,
Buffalo North Carolina,
University of North Carolina State University Ohio State University Oklahoma,
University of South Carolina,
University of Southern California,
University of St. George's University,
Grenada Temple University, Penn.
Tennessee, University of
Tufts University, Mass.
University College, Dublin, Ireland
University College, London, England
Vermont, University of
Virginia Polytechnic Institute Washington,
University of Wisconsin,
University of Yeshiva University, N.Y.

Institutions that have more than one copy of CVSAD, indicating that it may be being used as a hands-on laboratory (number of copies in parentheses):
California, University of, Los Angeles (7)
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio (15)
Colorado, University of (5)
Guelph, University of, Canada (2)
Iowa, University of (2)
Manitoba, University of, Canada (2)
Maryland, University of (5)
Nebraska, University of (20)
Rochester, University of, N.Y. (2)
Texas, University of (5)
Thomas Jefferson University, Penn. (7)
Tuskegee Institute, Ala. (4)

A survey of CVSAD owners indicated that 66% are using it in a variety of ways: as library reference, lecture aid, small group demonstration, or hands-on student activity. Ten percent have purchased multiple copies and use it regularly in student computer labs, and another 8% have written their own student handouts to accompany the program's assignments. Figure 1 shows its progressive use since the grant's beginning in 1984.

* Multiple copy sales grow more slowly, but indicate the greatest commitment to using the software.

What Activities Worked Unexpectedly?

Contrary to expectations, there was no need to develop special purpose hardware to meet the high computational demands of the simulations. In fact, as the project developed, both hardware and software tools developed more rapidly than project needs.

What Activities Didn't Work?

Despite enthusiastic reactions to the program, 34% of the original users report that they are not now using CVSAD. More distressing, 18% cite inadequate or total lack of equipment as the prohibiting factors. Furthermore, two-thirds of the users attempting hands-on student labs have only one copy of the program. Many curricula do not even provide sufficient time to include in-depth laboratory activities.

This project revealed a disturbing lack of computer equipment for educational use in medical and veterinary schools. Few institutions have demonstrated enough commitment to instructional computing to provide their students with adequate quantities of even the most basic personal computer systems.

The simulations, CVSAD and PML, were published by a small computer consulting firm. This had the advantage of quick and responsive service, but as time progressed, the small size of the publisher limited the project's ability to expand beyond its initial target audience of medical educators.

What Do You Have To Send Others And How Do They Get It?

Information about the project has been actively disseminated by a variety of means. Foremost among these has been demonstration of the software annually at the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology meetings. This conference attracts several thousand scientists and teachers and provides a forum for hands-on demonstrations to several hundred people each year. Additionally, papers authored by project staff have appeared in several learned journals and have described the simulated laboratories, the impact of diagnostic problems on understanding complex systems, and the idea of an integrated science laboratory.

Copies of the software may be obtained from the publisher:
Command Applied Technology
P.O. Box 511
Pullman, WA 99163-0511
501-334-6145

CVSAD costs $150 for one copy and $50 for each additional copy when four or more are ordered. Included with the program is a 150-page instructor's manual.

The Fault Identification Game was distributed as freeware by giving it to all interested visitors to the biology conference demonstrations and by mailing it to the owners of CVSAD and PML.

For further program information write to the project directors:
Nils S. Peterson or Sarah A. Douglas
Department of Computer Science University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
503-345-7749

Products

Feiner, S.A. and N.S. Peterson. 1986.

Pulmonary Mechanics Laboratory. Command Applied Technology, Pullman, Washington.

Peterson, N.S. with D.R. Armstrong. 1985.

Cardiovascular Systems and Dynamics. Command Applied Technology, Pullman, Washington.

Peterson, N.S. and S.A. Feiner. 1987.

Fault Identification Game. Freeware. University of Oregon.

Major Reports and Articles :

Feiner, S.A. and N. Peterson. 1987.

Simulations in physiology: Developing integrative thinking. Academic Computing, 1(1): 27-29, 63.

Hopkins, R.H., K.B. Campbell, and N.S. Peterson. 1987.

Representations of perceived relations among the properties and variables of a complex system. IEEE Trans Sys. Man and Cyber. SMC-17(1), 52-60.

Peterson, N.S., and K.B. Campbell. 1985.

Teaching cardiovascular integrations with computer laboratories. The Physiologist 28: 159-169.

Peterson, N.S., K.B. Campbell, R.H. Hopkins, and S.A. Feiner. 1985.

An integrated cardiovascular teaching laboratory. The Physiologist 28: 447-448.

Peterson, N.S., K.B. Campbell. 1986.

Designing interfaces for microcomputer simulations that teach integrative physiology. Trans. Summer Computer Simulation Conference, Society for Computer Simulation, La Jolla CA, 390-394.

Peterson, N.S., J.R. Jungck, D.M. Sharpe, and W.F. Finzer. 1987.

A design approach to science. Machine Mediated Learning 2: 1&2, 111-127.

Peterson, N.S., T.Y. Kagehiro, and K.B. Campbell. 1987.

Real-time cardiovascular simulation using two microprocessors. Mathematical Modelling 7, 929-940.

What Has Happened To The Program Since The Grant Ended?

Publicity has been invaluable to the widespread acceptance of both the project's teaching tools and pedagogy. Articles appearing in both popular press and academic publications have brought CVSAD and PML to the attention of scientists, educators, and other software designers. Direct mail marketing has been targeted at the 180 medical and veterinary schools in the United States.

The project has also served as the basis for three other grants. One from FIPSE is developing a biology laboratory construction kit with intelligent tutoring. It sets out to create more flexible simulations where students construct cardiovascular systems of their own design. Based on suggestions and improvements from CVSAD users, the National Institute of Health funded a second project to create a new textbook with simulations and a diagnostic tutor. The Fault Identification Game tutor has been enhanced with an online tutor. The third project is BioQUEST funded by the Annenbeg/CPB Project. BioQUEST is assembling a freshman biology course from modules developed by a number of faculty, including appropriate material from CVSAD.

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