Community Events and Involvement
August 2025
Teaching for the First Time
Date and Time: Aug 26, 1 p.m. EDT
Presenters: Justin Cobb, PhD; Suzan Kamel-ElSayed, DVM, PhD
This session, delivered in a team-based learning format, aims to equip first-time educators with essential teaching strategies and to boost confidence. Some of the challenges common to early-career higher education professionals—with suggestions to guide you will be discussed.
Using a Rubric to Guide the Creation of Equitable Assessments
Date & Time: Aug. 25, 1 p.m. EDT
Presenters: Erin Bruce, PhD; Marisol Lopez, PhD; Rebecca Petre Sullivan, PhD
Moderator: Christopher Schonhoff, PhD
Medical and allied health professional schools rely heavily on multiple choice assessments due to the nature of licensing exams. However, there are consistent achievement gaps for students from underrepresented groups in medicine and for English language learners. These exams often fall short in evaluation of knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning due to a number of flaws outlined in the National Board of Medical Education Item-Writing Guide. This session will examine a rubric developed for faculty to evaluate their multiple choice questions and determine if they follow best practices to provide equitable, consistent, and valid measures of student comprehension.
September 2025
Date and Time: Sep. 10, 6 p.m. EDT
Moderator: Barb Goodman, PhD, FAPS
Presenters: Caitlin Wyrwoll, PhD; Nicholas Fimognari; and Leaf Kardol
Reproductive system-related teaching can often contain binary and exclusionary perspectives on matters such as infertility, contraception, sexual health, sexuality, and gender. This talk will outline the changes our teaching team made to better reflect the real and normal diversity in human reproductive biology. We will outline the impact on student and staff experience as well as recommendations for tertiary educators on how to implement change.
October 2025
Abstracts and Awards
Date and Time: October 16, 1 p.m. EDT
Presenters: Marisol Lopez, PhD; Andy Petzold, PhD; Donika Rakacolli, PhD
Join us for a discussion on the following topics to help prepare you for upcoming opportunities with APS:
- Review and finalize your abstracts so they are ready to submit.
- Outline the requirements for Teaching Section awards.
- Helpful strategies for completing award applications.
- Ideas for promoting awards and abstract submissions with your colleagues.
November 2025
Date and Time: Nov. 4, 5 p.m. EST
Moderator: Barb Goodman, PhD, FAPS
Presenters: Miriam Leary, PhD; David Donely, MS; Randy Bryner, EdD; and Brian Leary, PhD
This qualitative study examined first-generation college student perceptions of academic preparedness and intended success strategies. The goal of the study was to program-level strategies to support first-generation students in similar undergraduate physiology-related programs. Approaches to support this population’s academic success could include early identification of at-risk students, setting realistic expectations, educating students early and often about evidence-based learning strategies, and developing academic recovery plans as needed.
Ongoing Involvement with the Center for Physiology Education
Throughout 2023, working groups will continue to update the more than 500 resources currently offered by the Center. These working groups are asking for your help to gather accessible, high-impact resources to add to the resource libraries. The working groups are considering resources for these current and anticipated resource libraries:
- Evidence-based teaching practices,
- Inclusive teaching,
- Teaching homeostasis,
- Physiology education research,
- Advising, and
- Physiology curriculum development at the undergraduate, graduate, and medical school levels.
Do you know a high-impact resource that would benefit physiology educators? If so, email the title and a link to the resource to APS Learning, apslearning@physiology.org for consideration. Please make sure to indicate which topic the resource addresses.
The Center needs your help developing and supporting our educator community. We are looking for a diverse group of contributors with various types of teaching experience and encourage anyone eager to learn about teaching and learning to volunteer. Even if you do not have teaching experience yet, we could use your help. Please complete the volunteer form to help us connect you with volunteer opportunities that match your interests, knowledge and passions.
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The Latest Education Research
View the peer-reviewed research from Advances in Physiology Education highlighting innovations that improve teaching in the classroom and laboratory, essays on education, and review articles based on our current understanding of physiological mechanisms.