Concept Mapping As A Tool To Promote Cognitive Integration

For 20 years there has been a push to integrate the basic and clinical sciences in medical school curricula. Recently, studies have suggested that cognitive integration by the student is best achieved when the relationships between basic science and clinical domains are explicitly demonstrated. Concept mapping in response to a prompt, which asks students to create relationships among clinical and basic science concepts, should provide explicit connections that lead to a deeper conceptual understanding of the material. We designed a study to test the hypothesis that concept mapping improves the ability of students to diagnostically discriminate between multiple endocrinopathies when compared to students who were provided with similar resources. We also looked to see if knowledge retention was correlated with concept mapping or the type of notes taken during studying.https://dune.une.edu/cetl_minigrant_posters/1001/thumbnail.jp

Conditional expression of Spry1 in neural crest causes craniofacial and cardiac defects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Growth factors and their receptors are mediators of organogenesis and must be tightly regulated in a temporal and spatial manner for proper tissue morphogenesis. Intracellular regulators of growth factor signaling pathways provide an additional level of control. Members of the Sprouty family negatively regulate receptor tyrosine kinase pathways in several developmental contexts. To gain insight into the role of Spry1 in neural crest development, we analyzed the developmental effects of conditional expression of Spry1 in neural crest-derived tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report that conditional expression of Spry1 in neural crest cells causes defects in craniofacial and cardiac development in mice. <it>Spry1;Wnt1-Cre </it>embryos die perinatally and exhibit facial clefting, cleft palate, cardiac and cranial nerve defects. These defects appear to be the result of decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis of neural crest and neural crest-derived cell populations. In addition, the domains of expression of several key transcription factors important to normal craniofacial and cardiac development including <it>AP2</it>, <it>Msx2</it>, <it>Dlx5</it>, and <it>Dlx6 </it>were reduced in <it>Spry1;Wnt1-Cre </it>transgenic embryos.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collectively, these data suggest that Spry1 is an important regulator of craniofacial and cardiac morphogenesis and perturbations in Spry1 levels may contribute to congenital disorders involving tissues of neural crest origin.</p

Student Perceptions Of Integrated Vs. Separate Basic Science And Clinical Resources

For 20 years there has been a push to integrate the basic and clinical sciences in medical school curricula. Recently, studies have suggested that cognitive integration is achieved when the relationships between basic science and clinical domains are explicitly demonstrated. In order to investigate methods that promote cognitive integration we performed a pilot study to develop and test different learning resources. We then surveyed students’ perceptions of these resources and analyzed how the resources affected their note taking. Our study suggests that the type of resources can influence the type of note-taking done by students, and that the process of taking integrated notes can enhance learning and retention. This was a pilot study and is limited by its small sample size. Additional research is planned to confirm and expand on these results.https://dune.une.edu/cetl_minigrant_posters/1000/thumbnail.jp