Modelling biological processes with building blocks
Overview
Dr Carolyn Voisey is an Advance HE Fellow and lecturer in Physiology at the University of Keele who has almost 20 years experience working in higher education. She is passionate about student led teaching and learning, inclusivity and ensuring that her students enjoy their time at University and achieve their potential.
As part of a first year physiology and anatomy module, students learn about kidney function and how the kidneys filter the blood to produce urine while reabsorbing water to prevent dehydration. As part of this, they need to understand the mechanism used to reabsorb water and sodium from the fluid filtered by the kidneys while ensuring adequate urine production to rid the body of urea and other waste production filtered from the blood. This mechanism is complex and is historically difficult for students to understand.
LEGO and similar building blocks have long been used to make learning more fun; the current initiative made use of the simplicity of the blocks to illustrate the complex process of filtration and reabsorption in the kidney. The activity requires students to have access to two beakers, 500ml of water, 20 bricks and a waste beaker. Water and the bricks are moved between the beakers/waste according to the recipe, to demonstrate fluid and sodium movement across the kidney tubule. This simple, creative strategy resulted in increased student enjoyment of the session but most importantly increased their understanding of counter current multiplication in the kidney. Making learning fun removed the anxiety students felt around a complex biological process and helped them to increase their confidence with the material which in turn helped their learning.
Contributor
Dr Carolyn Voisey (she/her)Link opens in a new window, University of Keele
Physiology (2024)
Lesson plan
- Initially all the bricks and water are added to one of the beakers, representing the initial fluid filtered in the kidney (concentration; 20 in 500mL). If wished, the beakers can be labelled to highlight the roles they will play, e.g. descending loop, ascending loop, and labelling the waste container 'blood circulation'. It is advisable to have everything sitting in a tray!
- As fluid passes through the descending loop, in the kidney water is reabsorbed by sodium is not – students carefully pour 250ml of water from the first beaker ('descending loop') into the waste container ('blood circulation'). As the sodium doesn't leave the tube/beaker, the concentration in now 20 bricks in 250ml. Students can see that at this stage, the concentration has doubled and the volume of fluid has reduced. This is the situation at the bottom of the loop in the kidney, just before fluid travels up the ascending loop.
- Students pour the contents of the first beaker into the second, labelled 'ascending loop'.
- In the kidney, the ascending loop is able to remove sodium (i.e. LEGO bricks) from the fluid but NOT water. Students have to remove 10 bricks from the beaker labelled 'ascending loop' and place in the tray around the beakers.
- At the end of this process, the beaker now has 10 bricks in 250ml. Students should agree that this is the SAME concentration as 20 bricks in 500ml. However, the volume has been reduced by 50%.
- The LEGO bricks which are in the tray around the beakers represent the sodium which has been removed from the fluid and is now in the kidney tissue. This increases the concentration of ions in the tissue surrounding the two beakers and is the reason why water is pulled out of the descending loop (i.e. the first beaker).
Tutor's observations
Adding in LEGO/similar bricks immediately got students attention back - complex concepts can be very daunting and a lot of students 'zone out' when tutors just read off slides. In a world where students are easily look up videos themselves, having a physical activity to do raises the energy level in the room and helped to re-engage everyone (myself included!). The fact that water tends to spill also raised a few giggles which relaxed people and made the activity light hearted and fun for all involved. From a personal perspective, seeing students suddenly 'get' the concept was fantastic, as they realised that they actually understood what was happening and WHY, several of them immediately returned to their notes and excitedly exclaimed that it all made sense!
The main pain point was ensuring health and safety permission for the activity as any practical activity outside of a lab setting requires signing off, even something this simple if students are to take part. Getting hold of the right equipment was relatively simple, as I work in a science department so sourcing beakers was quick. I would also recommend having a roll of blue tissue handy to mop up any spills!
Links to more like this
Categories: dpl_categories
Tools: Lego
Departments: University of Keele