Dr. Patrick Brown Authors Anatomy and Physiology Textbook

Dr. Patrick Brown, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences for the College of Public Health, has authored a book, Anatomy and Physiology: A Guided Inquiry, which uses the POGIL method to teach Anatomy and Physiology.  POGIL is an acronym for Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning. 

The textbook, published by Wiley, includes 37 activities that introduce students to the concepts of anatomy and physiology and reinforce these concepts through guided "critical thinking" and "application" questions.

POGIL originated in college chemistry departments in 1994; there are now well over 1000 implementers in a wide range of disciplines in high schools and colleges around the country. The method uses guided inquiry a learning cycle of exploration, concept invention and application as the basis for many of the carefully designed materials that students use to guide them to construct new knowledge. Dr. Brown says, "I want these students to start thinking like scientists. I want them to think about, "How do we solve problems through experimentation?"

Dr. Brown was the first person to develop POGIL materials for teaching Anatomy and Physiology. In addition to the recent textbook, he has published articles on teaching both Parasitology and Anatomy and Physiology with the POGIL method. For over five years he has been providing his counterparts with on-line access to POGIL materials for use in health science education.

Active learning is the process of keeping students mentally, and often physically, active in their learning through activities that involve them in gathering information, thinking, and problem solving. Additionally, active learning, according to Dr. Brown, "involves seeing how the various minor aspects of what it is we are trying to teach people to do... fit together into the big picture of what they are going to be doing as professionals." In a POGIL classroom, students work in small groups on specially designed materials. Those materials supply students with data or information for interpretation followed by guiding questions to lead them toward the formulation of their own valid conclusions. The professor serves as a facilitator, observing and periodically addressing individual and classroom-wide needs.

Dr. Brown, who was recently highlighted in Spring 2015 edition of "The POGIL Inquirer," focuses his research on teaching and learning in undergraduate science classrooms. He advocates for and uses active-learning pedagogies in his classrooms. His research investigates the effectiveness of these pedagogies and their impact on student engagement in various demographics. He is also interested in the integration of numerous active learning pedagogies as a mechanism for increasing student engagement and learning.