A hydraulic model of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology embedded into a computer-based teaching system for student training in laboratory courses

Teachers perception of the use on a low-cost pulse rate sensor for biology education

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a commonly used concept in schools, implemented in laboratory work in the form of various digital devices. We evaluated the ICT implementation in cardiovascular physiology in Slovenian primary school education. Surprisingly, we showed a relatively low acceptance rate in biology classes: only 42.8% of involved Slovenian biology teachers used a pulse rate (PR) measuring device. As a part of a Slovenian Project, students designed, developed, and manufactured a device capable of low-cost, automatic, noninvasive, and straightforward PR sampling in real time. The device was named Fingerbeeper, and teachers' perceptions of its efficacy and efficiency were evaluated in the elementary school biology lessons, comparing its ease of use with other commercially available devices: the systems from Vernier, Biopac, and the Gear Sport Samsung smartwatch. The most preferred system was the system from Vernier (36.4%), followed by the Fingerbeeper (29.1%), the system from Biopac (18.2%), and the smartwatch (16.3%). Teachers provided their opinion on the efficiency of the Fingerbeeper in terms of cost compared with the other three measurement devices. Its perception of efficiency was comparable to the other commercially available devices while having the estimated cost of only a few percent of the Biopac or Vernier systems. Considering the general low funding in the public primary schools in Slovenia, the bias toward Fingerbeeper seemed rational, outweighing the superior performance of the commercial systems. Further research and improvement of such low-cost and high-efficiency devices, also in general terms, would lead to broader acceptance and implementation of the ICT in curricula.

The Do-It-Yourself Electrocardiogram

Hands-on labs are a critical component of biomedical engineering undergraduate education. Due to both the pandemic and the growing interest in online education, we developed a Do-it-yourself Electrocardiogram (DIY EKG) project. The Arduino-based DIY EKG kit instructed students how to build a circuit to obtain their own EKG and then analyze their EKG data using Matlab. Despite the obstacles of virtually trouble-shooting, 85.4% of students (n = 103) were able to obtain their own EKG at home. We have provided the labelled circuit drawings, step-by-step instructions, Matlab files, and results in this paper. Survey results indicate that 89% of students felt the DIY EKG project was a “challenging yet fulfilling experience.”