The aim of the present article is to describe a puzzle developed for use in teaching cardiac physiology classes. The puzzle presents figures of phases of the cardiac cycle and a table with five columns: phases of cardiac cycle, atrial state, ventricular state, state of atrioventricular valves, and pulmonary and aortic valves. Chips are provided for use to complete the table. Students are requested to discuss which is the correct sequence of figures indicating the phases of cardiac cycle. Afterward, they should complete the table with the chips. Students of biology, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, and nursing graduation courses from seven institutions performed the puzzle evaluation. They were invited to indicate whether the puzzle had been useful for learning about the subject by filling one of four alternatives. Of the students, 4.6% answered that it was not necessary but helped them to confirm what they had learned, 64.5% reported that although they had previously understood the cardiac cycle, the puzzle helped them to solve doubts and promoted a better understanding of it, and 30.9% said that they needed the puzzle to understand the cardiac cycle, without differences among courses, institutions, and course semesters. The results of the present study suggest that a simple and inexpensive puzzle may be useful as an active learning methodology applied after the theoretical lecture, as a complementary tool for studying cardiac cycle physiology.

The evaluation process is complex and extremely important in the teaching/learning process. Evaluations are constantly employed in the classroom to assist students in the learning process and to help teachers improve the teaching process. The use of active methodologies encourages students to participate in the learning process, encourages interaction with their peers, and stimulates thinking about physiological mechanisms. This study examined the performance of medical students on physiology over four semesters with and without active engagement methodologies. Four activities were used: a puzzle, a board game, a debate, and a video. The results show that engaging in activities with active methodologies before a physiology cognitive monitoring test significantly improved student performance compared with not performing the activities. We integrate the use of these methodologies with classic lectures, and this integration appears to improve the teaching/learning process in the discipline of physiology and improves the integration of physiology with cardiology and neurology. In addition, students enjoy the activities and perform better on their evaluations when they use them.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an educational game that is used for teaching the mechanisms of the action potentials in cell membranes. The game was composed of pieces representing the intracellular and extracellular environments, ions, ion channels, and the Na-K-ATPase pump. During the game activity, the students arranged the pieces to demonstrate how the ions move through the membrane in a resting state and during an action potential, linking the ion movement with a graph of the action potential. To test the effect of the game activity on student understanding, first-year dental students were given the game to play at different times in a series of classes teaching resting membrane potential and action potentials. In all experiments, students who played the game performed better in assessments. According to 98% of the students, the game supported the learning process. The data confirm the students' perception, indicating that the educational game improved their understanding about action potentials.

PHYSIOLOGY has long been recognized as a subject that is difficult for students to master. Medical students, in particular, often fail to appreciate the relevance of learning and understanding normal body functions for their clinical studies (11). Over the past two decades, there has been increasing recognition in the physiology education literature of how innovative interventions can be used to address such issues. Not only has the importance of teaching and learning styles been highlighted (7,8, 11), but the need for greater student participation in the process to promote more active learning has also been called for (3,6,9). The medical curriculum is vast, and students are expected to learn many subjects at the same time. As a result, medical students often experience stress and find it difficult to cope with the curriculum. In addition, some first-year students find theory and practical classes to be monotonous. One of the difficulties faced by faculty members is, therefore, to maintain student interest in preclinical subjects, including physiology. In recent times, the medical curriculum has placed greater emphasis on aspects such as peer teaching, including working with interdisciplinary teams, using evidence-based practice, integrating clinical medicine at the start of their courses, and using biomedical informatics.At the Barão of Mauá University Center, the subjects of human physiology for undergraduate courses in medicine are taught with care to ensure the continual participation of students during theoretical and practical lessons. Students are advised on the care that they should demonstrate during practical lessons with experimental animals and enlightened about the importance of using videos and computerized models as a substitute for animal models when possible. Students are also consistently encouraged to develop creative methods of presenting the contents discussed during theory lessons.The course on the physiology of the nervous system offered to undergraduate medical students occurs in the second semester of the school year. This course is part of the Nervous System study, which consists of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and is taught with an integrated clinical vision by a neurologist. After the completion of the nervous system unit, students take the "Equipment and System l" course, in which they study embryology and cellular biology of the nervous system.The complexity of the nervous system is well established. When the physiological content of these systems is presented to first-year medical undergraduate students, great care is taken with respect to various important educational aspects. First, the functional events are presented to students during the expository/discursive theory lessons in a concise, objective manner.Second, for the medical course, even though it is for first-year students, the subject is presented in depth because its concepts are important for future subjects in basic as well as clinical areas.During the physiology theory lessons on transmission and synaptic interact...