This week our first-year medical students have completed their physiology curriculum. Based at it is on rigorous quantitative analysis of biological function, physiology is the most difficult first-year course. Physiology, by definition, is a quantitative discipline in which the mathematical relationships between interacting biological variables are examined, both empirically and theoretically.
We have students who are all intellectually brilliant, but with a very wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from applied mathematics majors to history majors. As you can imagine, these students have greatly different abilities to deal with complicated mathematical formulae.
I take an intuitive and teleological approach to conveying physiological principles to my medical students. I explain to them that the vast majority of the mathematical formalisms of physiology are more or less complicated versions of Ohm’s law. And I ask them to imagine how they would design a system to perform the task at hand: keep cardiac output constant, keep the membrane potential constant, maintain body fluid and solute homeostasis, etc.
I derive a huge amount of pleasure seeing the transitions of my students’ faces from “HUH!?” to “AAAHH!!” And I hope that my efforts eventually lead to some sick patient who might have otherwise died surviving, because one of my students was excited and educated by my pedagogy.
(This post is based on this one I wrote previously at DrugMonkey. Yeah, I’m a lazy fuck.)
7 comments
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Professor in Training
May 16, 2009 at 3:57 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You lazy fuck!
ScientistMother
May 16, 2009 at 4:50 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I read the whole post and thought, this is PP posting. that is until the last line. I knew you couldn’t go a whole post with out saying fuck
Spiny Norman
May 16, 2009 at 5:38 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
That is a fucking awesomely satisfying feeling, is it not? :-)
Cognitive Psychologist
May 17, 2009 at 8:01 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
CPP, you’re not a lazy fuck…you’re just EFFICIENT. ;)
Candid Engineer
May 17, 2009 at 8:28 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The scene: One of PhysioProf’s former students is in the hospital, furiously working on a critical patient. The student/physician is in disarray, bewildered by the failing physiology of the patient. Suddenly, the physician is stuck by an interesting thought, and shouts, “Holy Fucknoly! It’s Ohm’s Law!” And indirectly, yesssss, CPP has saved the day…
whoever
May 18, 2009 at 3:22 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
In your dreams!
LostMarbles
May 19, 2009 at 10:59 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Is it really necessary to remind me about how shitty my intro to physiology profs were?