Project Objectives:
I. Project Progress Report - Summary Students with direct and extensive experience in computer-based modeling and physiological signal acquisition and analysis will become better scientists and physicians. For this reason, the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology (MIP), in collaboration with the Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics (CCMB), submitted and were awarded a Stage I Gilbert-Whittaker grant for a Portable Physiology Computer Lab being used for two new courses: PHYSIOL 404 - Human Physiology Laboratory and PHYSIOL 520 - Computational Systems Physiology. The portable physiology computer lab has been created with the Stage I funds and grant-matching funds from MIP. In Spring 2011 six Lenovo ThinkPad laptop computers were purchased as well as six data acquisition systems with dedicated software from ADInstruments. Total expenditures to date are $23,640.74 with $10,000 spent from the Stage I award and the balance provided by MIP. The ADI systems are self-contained in metallic suitcases, and thus these systems, plus the laptops and peripheral supplies purchased for each laboratory, fit neatly on a single cart. This makes these laboratories truly portable, not only within the Medical and Central Campus, but also for transport to other campuses and educational outreach to area K-12 schools. Using this equipment PHYSIOL 404 was taught in Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, and five sections are being taught this Fall 2012. PHYSIOL 520 was taught in the Winters of 2011 and 2012, and both these courses have been very successful (see below), so much so that MIP is in the process of hiring a new lecturer to direct PHYSIOL 404 full-time. Expansion and major improvements to PHYSIOL 404 will be possible with the purchase of additional data acquisition systems and equipment for particular laboratories – these needs form the main basis for our Stage II requests.
Project Achievements:
II. Implementation of Stage I The Human Physiology Laboratory was established as PHYSIOL 404 with the Registrar’s Office and is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Including the Fall 2012 enrollments, 54 undergraduates and 32 M.S. students have enrolled in the course. Students work in pairs to enable each student to both conduct the experiments (as computer/ADI operator) and to serve as experimental subject. In this way, each student understands the nature of the data acquisition process and has recordings of their own physiological data. Students can then work together in the classroom, or offline, to analyze and summarize the experimental data and gain an understanding of the principles or concepts being covered. A particularly useful feature of the ADI software, called LabTutor, is that students can access an online server housing the full experimental module including their recorded data. Therefore, the laboratory is truly fully portable and students enjoy the blended learning benefits of in class instruction with online resource availability. As with any course, establishing PHYSIOL 404 involved a number of things: raising student awareness about the new course, answering questions and improving receptivity, syllabus development, establishing a dedicated server for the ADI management software, equipment testing and detection of software glitches during implementation (there were thankfully few of these!), procedural challenges such as determining if synchronizing content with 200 and 500 level physiology courses was possible, and room assignment scheduling and changes. Regarding the latter, having a portable laboratory in the Medical school is particularly advantageous, as Medical student courses and events take priority – being bumped from a room can happen rather last minute. While the ADI system works best with Ethernet connection, wireless connection with the laptops was required when some laboratories had to be held in rooms without Ethernet ports. PHYSIOL 404 is giving students the opportunity for active learning of physiological concepts and principles. The course fulfills the needs of students applying to graduate and medical programs that require a physiology laboratory as well as fulfilling the laboratory requirement of the new M.S. in Physiology degree offered through MIP. Computational Systems Physiology for advanced undergraduate, M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students in the Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS) has been offered each Winter semester since its inception in 2010. We have officially enrolled a total of 47 students. This course introduces currently available mathematical and computational strategies to investigate the physiological processes in the biomedical sciences. The course is cross-listed with the Bioinformatics Graduate Program and is offered to all Ph.D. programs within the UM Medical School. It is also available as an elective to students in the physical sciences, mathematics, and Gilbert-Whittaker Fund Stage II Application Schnell, Rust, Ferrari 2 engineering. This course is innovative and differs from others of which we are aware. We select an important problem in a disease or organ system whose solution will involve some useful computational modeling. After briefly discussing the required scientific background, we formulate the relevant computational problem with some care. The formulation step is often difficult, and unfortunately few courses or textbooks actually demonstrate this step. In our course, we give due emphasis to the challenges involved in constructing computational models. Another important emphasis of each lecture discusses the current emerging or potential modeling approaches that may promote our understanding of a particular tissue or organ. In 2010, the main limitation of this course was the lack of a practical computational laboratory, where students can enhance and solidify their understanding of mathematical and computational approaches learned in the lectures. III. Assessment Outcomes from Stage I During the award period we implemented course assessment evaluations for both PHYSIOL 404 and PHYSIOL 520 to determine knowledge and retention of material from previous traditional courses. In PHYSIOL 404, students were given a pre-course assessment with 48 challenging questions written at the upper undergraduate/graduate level. The aim was to determine knowledge and retention of material from previous traditional courses and provide a baseline for the same exam given as a post-course assessment. Students had no foreknowledge of this exam and were encouraged to relax and do their best as it was not part of the course grade but rather part of course assessment. In Fall 2011, the pre-assessment average score was 52.8% and the post-course average score was 73.1%. This difference is statistically significant (p
