Physics education in secondary schools can include biophysics topics as electives. An open simulation based on a simulation like Minecraft for learning the workings of the action potential in human cells was designed and tested for students in upper secondary physics education. In small design and test cycles both the simulation engine and the…

Sections PDF (924 KB) TOOLS SHARE Abstract Graduate physiology programs strive to provide students with in-depth expertise in a particular academic discipline, often facilitating this process in the form of a departmental seminar course. Within the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California Irvine (UCI), students are…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected almost all aspects of our lives, including the education sector and the way of teaching and learning. In March 2020, health authorities in Brazil imposed social isolation and the interruption of on-site activities in schools and universities. In this context, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), one of the…

Successful demonstration of lipid assembly chemistry to a general audience can be challenging on both physical (nanoscopic dimensions of lipid assemblies) and intellectual (complex, interconnected concepts) accounts. Quite often, an instructor has to leave key concepts out of what is being offered due to time constraints, which unfortunately…

The protein folding reaction is one of the most important chemical reactions in the human body. Yet, despite its importance, it is sometimes omitted from undergraduate courses due to the challenging nature of some of the underlying concepts. To help make key concepts of the protein folding reaction accessible to our undergraduate students, we…

We present our nascent "STEM Access and Training for Underserved Students" (STATUS), a model to attract Latinx students first to attend college and second to enter the STEM fields. The program consists of a series of hands-on investigative activities in physiology, neuroscience, biophysics, genetics, exercise physiology, biomechanics,…

The five papers published by Hodgkin and Huxley in 1952 are seminal works in the field of physiology, earning their authors the Nobel Prize in 1963 and ushering in the era of membrane biophysics. The papers present a considerable challenge to the novice student, but this has been partly allayed by recent publications that have updated the…

There is interest in admission criteria that predict future success in biomedical graduate school programs, but identifying predictors of PhD attainment is inherently complex. In particular, high noncompletion rates of PhD programs have long been recognized as a major crisis. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of the PhD students enrolled in…

This study analyzes how medical educational programs are evolving to address the digital transformation in healthcare. Surveys, curriculum analysis, and faculty interviews were utilized to examine technology integration. Findings indicate electronic medical records are considered the most significant digital achievement, though only 4% of beginner…

Scientific disciplines spanning biology, biochemistry, and biophysics involve the study of proteins and their functions. Visualization of protein structures represents a barrier to education and research in these disciplines for students who are blind or visually impaired. Here, we present a software plugin for readily producing variable-height…

Improving the scientific literacy of non-scientists is an important aim, both because of the ever-increasing impact of science on our lives and because understanding science enriches our experience of the natural world. One route to improving scientific literacy is via general education undergraduate courses--i.e. courses for students not majoring…

We investigate the development of expert identities through the use of the sociocultural perspective of learning as participating in a community of practice. An ethnographic case study of biophysics graduate students focuses on the experiences the students have in their research group meetings. The analysis illustrates how the communities of…

Biological organisms function as the result of a multitude of complex physical systems all interacting with one another at different length scales and over different time scales. At stages of education below university undergraduate level, this complexity often prevents the discussion of physics within a biological context, subtly implying that…

The article substantiates the necessity of studying the peculiarities of color vision of human in the course "Biophysics" that have been integrated into many types of higher education institutions. It describes the experience of teaching this discipline in a pedagogical higher education institution. The article presents a brief review of…

There remains a strong movement for Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) courses to better integrate physics and biology. Part of the challenge for IPLS educators is to introduce fundamental physical law while simultaneously establishing the relevance of physics to biological science. Life science relevant laboratory experiences are…