DEMONSTRATION
Acid/base Primer
Richard E. Rawson and Franz Sugarman
College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University
ABSTRACT:
The goal of this program is to give students a working understanding of acid/base physiology. This is a "primer" in that it focuses on pathophysiology and leaves clinical management to another forum. Special attention is paid to those concepts with which students consistently have trouble. By the time students finish this module, they not only understand some basic principles but will be able to interpret a wide range of blood-gas panels. Students are presented with a number of problem sets, the first of which will be somewhat simpler and then each subsequent one will build upon the previous set. Each problem set includes a table of blood gas data and a series of questions.
Four pedagogical principles were used in the design of the program:
1. Activation of prior knowledge. Students come to the program with varying degrees of prior knowledge and experience with the topic and these affect the way in which students interact with new information. Activating prior knowledge through discussions, as in collaborative learning situations, facilitates the processing of new information.
2. Context as an anchor. The context in which learning takes place is important and provides an ìanchorî that encourages meaningful, active construction of knowledge. Learning that occurs in the context of clinical cases will be more easily retrievable when students encounter similar circumstances later in their career.
3. Multiple examples. Research in the development of critical thinking skills suggests that giving students the opportunity to work through several different, but conceptually related problems, increases their ability to apply core principles and concepts to new problems later.
4. Mathamagenic approach. Use of a mathemagenic approach to learning, in which questions are used before, during, and after learning, has been shown to improve the degree of learning.
BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:
Demonstration of the Acid/Base Primer will encourage participants to engage in a discussion of the application of sound pedagogy to the development of instructional software for health sciences students.
Richard E. Rawson
T8-008C Veterinary Research Tower
Department of Biomedical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 607-253-3748
Fax: 607-253-3851
Email: rer1@cornell.edu
CO-AUTHORS:
Franz Sugarman
Office of Educational Development
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 607-253-3768
Email: fs47@cornell.edu