Este artigo relata o processo de construção e aplicação de modelos de baixo custo na área de biologia celular e molecular. O caráter microscópico das estruturas estudadas nos conteúdos destas disciplinas torna a abordagem de ensino muitas vezes abstrata, dificultando o processo de aprendizagem. Ao mesmo tempo, a falta de laboratórios ou equipamentos em muitas escolas compromete o ensino destas disciplinas. Neste contexto, estudantes do curso de ciências biológicas da Universidade Federal de Alfenas (Unifal-MG) desenvolveram e aplicaram sete modelos em alunos do ensino médio, como material didático de apoio para a disciplina Biologia. Os resultados foram bastante positivos tanto para os estudantes do ensino médio, quanto para a equipe de graduandos. Palavras-chave: modelos tridimensionais, ensino médio, biologia celular, biologia molecular, ensino de biologia.

SummaryBiomedical developments in the 21st century provide an unprecedented opportunity to gain a dynamic systems-level and human-specific understanding of the causes and pathophysiologies of disease. This understanding is a vital need, in view of continuing failures in health research, drug discovery, and clinical translation. The full potential of advanced approaches may not be achieved within a 20th-century conceptual framework dominated by animal models. Novel technologies are being integrated into environmental health research and are also applicable to disease research, but these advances need a new medical research and drug discovery paradigm to gain maximal benefits. We suggest a new conceptual framework that repurposes the 21st-century transition underway in toxicology. Human disease should be conceived as resulting from integrated extrinsic and intrinsic causes, with research focused on modern human-specific models to understand disease pathways at multiple biological levels that are analogous to adverse outcome pathways in toxicology. Systems biology tools should be used to integrate and interpret data about disease causation and pathophysiology. Such an approach promises progress in overcoming the current roadblocks to understanding human disease and successful drug discovery and translation. A discourse should begin now to identify and consider the many challenges and questions that need to be solved.

No abstract

Humane education and the debate on alternatives to harmful animal use for training is a relatively recent issue in Brazil. While animal use in secondary education has been illegal since the late 1970s, animal use in higher science education is widespread. However, alternatives to animal experiments in research and testing have recently received attention from the Government, especially after the first legislation on animal experiments was passed, in 2008. This article proposes that higher science education should be based on a critical and humane approach. It outlines the recent establishment of the Brazilian Network for Humane Education (RedEH), as a result of the project, Mapping Animal Use for Undergraduate Education in Brazil, which was recognised by the 2014 Lush Prize. The network aims to create a platform to promote change in science education in Brazil, starting by quantitatively and qualitatively understanding animal use, developing new approaches adapted to the current needs in Brazil and Latin America, and communicating these initiatives nationally. This paper explores the trajectory of alternatives and replacement methods to harmful animal use in training and education, as well as the status of humane education in Brazil, from the point of view of educators and researchers engaged with the network.

Resumo