Histology and practical teaching in Biomedical Science at the University of Bristol
Dr. Frankie MacMillan
Reader in Biomedical Education
This lecture will cover three main subjects: virtual e-learning such virtual microscope and eBioLab, and also teaching carrier at University of Bristol.
Histology teaching
We teach histology to students of Medicine, Veterinary science and Dentistry as well as on our BSc programmes. I will explain the online system we have developed to teach histology. This allows the students to access histology sections online. Teachers can provide notes and annotations on the slides and the students can also add their own labels and notes for their own use.
We teach the students in practical classes in a lab where they can use a computer but can bring their own laptop if they want. They also have access in the class to microscopes and the physical glass slides if they want to use them.
We have recently developed a histology card game for students to play and help make their learning more interactive and fun. I will explain the game and bring some trial packs of card for students (and staff) to have a go.
Practical teaching
We teach physiology, neuroscience and pharmacology to our BSc students and to Medicine, Veterinary science and Dentistry students. We teach using lectures, workshops, tutorials and practical classes. We maintain a high level of practical teaching as we believe this is very important for science students to learn about experimental design and analysis.
We support practical teaching with an online lab manual ‘eBiolabs’. This has all the notes and protocols, including film clips and animations, to support the teaching. It also includes online ‘quizzes’ where the students upload their results and analysis and answer questions relating to the experiment done in the practical class.
We also use human patient simulators to demonstrate aspects of physiology that we can’t demonstrate in practical classes where the students use each other as subjects.
I will explain how eBiolabs and the human patient simulators are used and demonstrate examples of practical the assessments we use.
Academic careers in Bristol
I will explain briefly how an academic career in teaching is structured in Bristol, and how this relates to the rest of the UK. I will explain how I became a Reader (Associate Professor).
About the speaker
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/phys-pharm/people/frankie-m-macmillan/index.html
