A 3-D-printed synaptic puzzle contributes to students’ synaptic transmission comprehension

Abstract

We created the "3D synaptic puzzle" (3Dsp) as an educational resource for the physiology teaching of synaptic transmission (ST). We aimed to apply and evaluate the use of 3Dsp. For this, we divided 175 university students from public and private universities into two groups: (i) control (CT; students that were only exposed to ST traditional class or video-lessons), and; (ii) test (3Dsp; students that were exposed to the 3Dsp practical class in addition to the theoretical class). ST knowledge of students was evaluated before, immediately after, and 15 days after interventions. Additionally, students completed a questionnaire about their perception of teaching-learning methods used in physiology classes and their self-perception of engagement in the physiology content. The CT groups improved their ST knowledge score from pre to immediate and late post-test. 3Dsp groups also enhanced their score from pre to immediate (P = 0.029 for public-university students; P < 0.0001 for private university students) and to late post-test (P < 0.0001 for all groups). We also observed improvement from the immediate to late post-test in the 3Dsp group from private universities (P < 0.001). Both Pr groups performed better in general ST and specific electrical synapse questions in the pre and immediate post-test compared to the Pub CT group (p < 0.05). More than 90% of the students from both universities affirmed that the 3Dsp contributed to their physiology comprehension and that they would recommend the use of the 3D models to other teachers in their classes.