What Are Effective Ways to Explain Complex Physiological Processes to Non-Specialists?

What Are Effective Ways to Explain Complex Physiological Processes to Non-Specialists?

When it comes to demystifying the intricate workings of the human body, educators and professors face the unique challenge of making complex physiological processes understandable. Drawing on the expertise of a Professor of Biology and a Professor of Physiology, we've gathered four insightful strategies. From tailoring complexity to the audience to explaining physiology through movement, these educational experts share their top methods for conveying sophisticated biological concepts to students and non-specialists.

• Tailor Complexity to the Audience
• Simplify Ideas into Relevant Messages
• Use Analogies and Visual Aids
• Explain Physiology Through Movement

Tailor Complexity to the Audience

It depends upon the venue (classroom vs. public lecture or coffee klatch), but generally I:

1. Explain the concept of complexity and how living things exemplify it.
2. Introduce or remind the listener of the existence and nature of feedback in a system.
3. Talk about how feedback generates chaotic behavior, yet how in complex systems there is emergent determinism, predictability, and homeostasis.
4. Explain how in physiology, multiple complex regulatory systems interact with each other to give rise to whole-organism health and behavior; i.e., the endocrine and nervous systems in animals, or the auxins and phytochromes in plants.

Simplify Ideas into Relevant Messages

Simplifying complexity starts by classifying numerous ideas into categories. Like a restaurant menu with hundreds of items, which has categories (soups, salads, appetizers, main courses, desserts), typologies can be created to simplify the world. Then, the value of the ideas can be put into messages that are meaningful and relevant to the receiver, not the giver. Instead of saying 'I know that...', value comes when 'I will help you meet your needs with what I know.' For example, a leader's job is not to exercise power, but to empower others to build their personal brand. So, language, metaphors, examples, and stories should be readily understood and accessed by the user of the ideas, not the giver.

Use Analogies and Visual Aids

Explaining complex physiological processes to non-specialists, especially children, requires simplicity and visual aids. Using analogies that relate to everyday experiences can make concepts more accessible. For instance, comparing the circulatory system to a network of roads transporting goods (blood) to different parts of the body. Additionally, employing models, diagrams, and interactive activities can enhance understanding. With children, using age-appropriate language and storytelling can capture their interest and facilitate comprehension. For example, describing digestion as a journey food takes through the body, with different organs playing specific roles like a team of workers in a factory. Overall, breaking down complex ideas into digestible chunks and engaging learners with interactive tools can make physiological processes more understandable and memorable.

Explain Physiology Through Movement

Physiology is about movement: the movement of fluids, the driving forces affecting this movement, the gradients developing the forces to move, and the positive and negative feedback that maintains homeostasis. Walter Cannon, inspired by Claude Bernard in the 1860s, defined physiology further by the definition of homeostasis. He described in 'The Wisdom of the Body' in 1932 as possessing four precepts:

1. Constancy in an open system, such as our bodies represent, requires mechanisms that act to maintain this constancy (e.g., homeostasis).
2. Steady-state conditions require that any tendency toward change automatically meets with factors that resist change.
3. The regulating system that determines the homeostatic state consists of a number of cooperating mechanisms acting simultaneously or successively.
4. Homeostasis does not occur by chance but is the result of organized self-government.

This is the foundation of physiology.