App simulates metabolism human
Biologist develops tool that shows glycemic control in different situations.
App simulates metabolism human
Biologist develops tool that shows glycemic control in different situations.
Training a healthcare professional goes beyond memorizing body systems and hormone names. It requires understanding complex, integrated, and often invisible processes, such as blood glucose control, a mechanism altered in diseases like obesity and diabetes. Then-undergraduate biology student Ana Clara de Gouvêa Fernandes saw this as an opportunity to develop a learning tool on the subject alongside Professor and researcher Everardo Magalhães Carneiro, from the Institute of Biology (IB) at Unicamp and the Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center (OCRC).
“The images in the books were still. I imagined it would be so amazing if they moved,” recalls Fernandes. From this frustration arose the scientific question that guided his thesis at Unicamp: what if it were possible to simulate human metabolism in an app?
Carneiro, whose work involves studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of insulin and glucagon production, secretion, and action in animal models, taught the course that dealt with the subject and saw in the student a potential and great affinity for teaching. "I noticed that she had a great aptitude for teaching, so I saw potential in developing strategies focused on the learning of students in the health field," explains the advisor.
The research resulted in the development and evaluation of an application that simulates glycemic control in different situations, such as healthy metabolism, obesity, and type 1 and type 2 diabetes. By using the app, the student adjusts variables and immediately sees the behavior of the hormones and organs involved in the glucose regulation process, which in textbooks appears as static diagrams.
Fernandes' goal wasn't to create an app for its own sake, she says, but to solve an educational problem. According to both student and advisor, many students in the health field know what insulin is, but they don't understand what it does in conjunction with the liver and other organs, and how this changes when there is difficulty in insulin action, as in obesity and type 2 diabetes, or in the total absence of this hormone, as in type 1 diabetes.
In health-related training, understanding these relationships can be crucial for interpreting tests and guiding patients. "Health education is prevention. If future professionals understand these mechanisms, they can explain them better to the patient and possibly prevent the disease from worsening," summarizes Fernandes.
Tests
To assess whether the application truly facilitated learning, classes and tests were conducted with students, targeting two distinct audiences: those in higher education and those in secondary education.
In higher education, the research explored different possibilities for using the resource at two distinct times. Initially, students participated in a traditional lecture with slides, given by Professor Carneiro, followed by a practical lesson with the application conducted by Fernandes. This first stage constituted an Inquiry-Based Learning experience, an approach in which the student formulates hypotheses as they manipulate the application. Subsequently, the traditional lecture was replaced by an interactive lesson in which students used the application continuously, interspersed with brief in-depth presentations conducted by Fernandes, characterizing a Technology-Mediated Lesson. Student performance was evaluated through pre-tests and post-tests, opinion questionnaires, and international usability scales.
In all courses tested, there was a significant improvement in performance after using the app. The tool also obtained an average score of 75,11 on the System Usability Scale, an international indicator considered to have high acceptance. Students reported a feeling of autonomy and greater conceptual clarity. "When we bring technology closer to the classroom, things start to make sense," says Fernandes.
The second phase tested the application with high school students. At this level, the application worked well, but in a different way. While university students were able to navigate independently and build hypotheses, in high school students, teacher mediation was indispensable. "They don't yet have as much autonomy in their studies as an undergraduate student," he explains.
According to the author, the thesis openly engages with the principles of Paulo Freire, the author chosen for the document's epigraph: "Teaching is not transferring knowledge, but creating possibilities for its own production." For Fernandes, the app is precisely the materialization of this idea. "I don't want the app to give the answer. I want it to provoke the student to think."
The research concludes that the app does not replace the traditional classroom with a teacher present, but it can complement it by promoting active and meaningful learning. "For a country facing a high prevalence of diabetes—Brazil ranks sixth in the world in the number of adults with the disease—the integration between education and health can be decisive," reflects Fernandes.
According to Carneiro, the importance of the research lies in making the concepts involved in glycemic control less abstract. “Providing students in health professions and related professionals with a learning tool about the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in glycemic control makes the concepts less abstract,” he states. He also highlights that the application is already used in practical classes: “We use this device in our practical classes and it is very clear that the students like it and emphasize that it improves the visualization of the theoretical concepts covered in class.”
The advisor also sees the app as a response to structural issues in physiology education in Brazil. According to him, the tool can especially benefit institutions that lack more efficient structures for practical physiology classes. Furthermore, the use of the interactive app can mitigate the issue of using animals in practical classes, since physiology education for health science students mostly involves the use of laboratory animals to visualize the dynamic functions of the organism.