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Improving physiology learning and understanding by adding outreach activities to the teaching: report of the IUPS and ADInstruments Teaching Workshop 2017.

The workshop entitled “Improving physiology learning and understanding by adding outreach activities to the teaching” was part of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) and ADInstruments Teaching Workshop 2017 program. The workshop was held on August 7, 2017, in Armação de Búzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was proposed by professors Pâmela B. Mello-Carpes and Felipe Pivetta Carpes, from Brazil, who served as the facilitators. The main goal of the workshop was to show and discuss different possibilities and strategies to include outreach activities as part of regular physiology courses and incorporate them into the teaching-learning-assessment routine in the classes. Thirty-three people from different countries (Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Sudan, Japan, United States, Argentina, and others) attended the workshop. All seats were occupied, even though there were fur workshops being run simultaneously. Initially, the facilitators introduced the idea of outreach in physiology teaching and shared their experiences with outreach activities developed in the past 5 yr. These activities were performed by undergraduate students in cooperation with elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as with the lay public, like the residents from the local community. It was also explained how the university educational system works in Brazil regarding academic semesters and the system of credits, as well as the number of students in the classes, since these factors can influence the organization of activity programs (curriculum). Educational outreach refers to activities that support formal or classroom-based education, and that provide educational experiences for young people, such as undergraduate students. Outreach activities can be developed for classrooms, libraries, after-school programs, community-based organizations, museums, etc., and can support the professional development of important professional skills. Some characteristics of outreach activities make them good strategies to improve learning. Outreach requires that the undergraduate student developing the activity explain the concepts to the others (which means to teach others), and this method promotes high retention rates of knowledge (1, 12). In this regard, outreach frequently involves demonstrations, group discussions, hands-on, experimentation, and active teaching-learning methods, which contributes to improve learning for all involved. The workshop facilitators showed evidence of the involvement of undergraduate students in the planning, organization, and development of the learning activities, improving their physiology understanding, and also their interest in further studies in physiology (1, 3, 4). Furthermore, it is important to consider that outreach has impacts beyond the teaching and learning in the classroom. In medical schools, outreach has positive impacts on both students and the community (2). It also increases confidence of students to perform professional activities, which may reflect a complementary function of outreach in professional formation (8). Outreach also provides other advantages in the teaching-learning process, since it promotes formal (and informal) networking between the university and the community (11) and helps to popularize science (10). It also can be useful to educate the community about important topics related to teaching-learning and research, like the use of animals in research (9), and to make the community aware of health and medications, contributing to increased visibility of the activity of professionals in the community (5). Outreach does not need to have higher costs: it can be developed with a modest budget and started small, in collaboration with local partners and using the infrastructure of the local community (7). Based on these studies that helped to justify the importance of not only developing an outreach activity, but also including it as an active part of the teaching-learning process, the facilitators presented different approaches to include outreach in physiology teaching, for example: