Using an Activity to Visualize Kidney Function

Osmosis and the movement of water is a common theme in biology courses.  Students first learn the concept in General Biology (Bio181/Bio156), then students have to apply it to human physiology in Anatomy and Physiology (Bio 201/202).  Students have a difficult time understanding this concept as evidenced by only 39% correctly answering a question about osmosis in the kidney on the unit exam.  To address this issue, I utilized a whiteboarding activity to have students critically evaluate how changing osmolarity in the kidney medulla affects water movement from the collecting duct.  I assessed their understanding by scoring a question on the unit exam.  I found that 54% of students correctly answered the question.  Thus, using the whiteboarding activity had a positive impact on student understanding of osmosis in kidney physiology.