125 - Renal Race and Pathology at Play: A Tale of Two Board Games Designed for Renal Anatomy Education

Poster Board Number: 125
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Co-authors:

Jada Gibson - Health Sciences - McMaster University; Aamna Naveed - Health Sciences - McMaster University; Joseph Lawton - Health Sciences - McMaster University; Bruce Wainman - Education Program in Anatomy - McMaster University; Yasmeen Mezil - Education Program in Anatomy - McMaster University

Abstract Body : Game-based learning (GBL) is a pedagogical strategy that has been increasingly used to promote student-centered learning. Students often struggle with learning renal anatomy due to difficulties combining physiological knowledge with structural knowledge. Given these challenges, it stands to reason that GBL can be used to make learning renal anatomy more satisfying and enjoyable. Thus, the goals of this project are to design and implement two renal anatomy board games as anatomy lab activities for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. Games were designed using elements such as narrative structure, competition, reward, and progression. Renal Race is a trivia board game teaching the reabsorption sites of physiologically important molecules. Students role-play as different molecules and move to the appropriate reabsorption sites, answering trivia cards of varying complexity. The former is facilitated by the game board which acts as a visual representation of a nephron. Pathology at Play is a problem-solving game where the goal is to discover a pathology using a series of clues, a set-up that is similar to clinical tutorials. Players record their observations and integrate all relevant pieces of evidence to make a diagnosis. These games were developed in consultation with medical faculty using content aligned with the Medical Foundations Anatomy course. Through an iterative process of beta-testing and prototyping, verbal and written feedback was collected from faculty, medical students, and undergraduate students during and immediately after playing the board games. After revision, feedback was implemented, and a final testing session of these board games was conducted to explore user friendliness and educational benefit. Participant feedback indicated that the integration of Renal Race and Pathology at Play as anatomy lab activities led to an interactive and enjoyable learning experience. The engaging and immersive design of the Renal Race, along with considerations for accessibility, anatomical correctness, and varying levels of difficulty, was found to promote active recall and collaboration amongst medical students. The structure of Pathology at Play was found to enhance the traditional case-study experience. The process of integrating evidence after short-term exposure created the opportunity for problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. Through these interactive board games, GBL provided an engaging supplementary method for learning and reinforcing knowledge about renal anatomy. These findings suggest that GBL can be used to develop resources for learning academic content in medical education.