Evolution of a student model building program designed to assist understanding of biological control systems

Tertiary students in graduate and undergraduate medical and biomedical science courses have increasingly diverse backgrounds in prior academic achievements and culture. This presents problems for teachers assisting students to understand complex biological control systems. Our approach is to have students work in small groups to construct their own simple model of such a control system. This model then provides the basis for a structural framework for them to add further complexity without losing overall perspective, and allows exploration of deeper issues. Our interactive model-building program is suitable for many disciplines and student backgrounds, and provides a visual representation of a difficult concept, aiding in memory retention and providing a basis to ground further knowledge.. Audit trail data have been analyzed to identify and resolve areas of student difficulty, and extensive surveys and observations on students’ use of the program over three years in several courses have been used to improve and test its effectiveness.