An educational game for teaching osmolarity and tonicity: opinions of dental and medical students.

In health courses, the students must be familiar with the effects of intravenous solutions on cell volume and function, a topic where there can be learning difficulties and misunderstandings. Since educational games can assist in understanding complex concepts, we created a game relating solution osmolarity and tonicity to red blood cell volume that was used in undergraduate Dentistry and Medicine courses. The students, working in groups, completed the game board by indicating the effect of the solutions on the red blood cell volume and classifying the solutions in terms of tonicity and osmolarity.

Neuroglia and their roles in central respiratory control; an overview.

While once viewed as mere housekeepers, providing structural and metabolic support for neurons, it is now clear that neuroglia do much more. Phylogenetically, they have undergone enormous proliferation and diversification as central nervous systems grew in their complexity. In addition, they: i) are morphologically and functionally diverse; ii) play numerous, vital roles in maintaining CNS homeostasis; iii) are key players in brain development and responses to injury; and, iv) via gliotransmission, are likely participants in information processing.