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Students in Dr. Joslyn Ahlgren’s Exercise Physiology class put their creativity to the test.
By Lindsy Carrasquillo
Sophomore Stephen Marangi created a cake showing the different elements that make up myocyte, a type of cell found in the muscle tissue, using sprinkles, Twizzlers and more.
Sarah David, Emily Houck, and Isabella Quintero, juniors in the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, constructed cookies depicting muscles which highlight regulatory proteins, the motor end plate, NMJ, myofibril cross section and sarcomere.
“Baking and decorating the cookies was a relaxed way for the three of us to learn,” said David. “The hands-on creativity of decorating the cookies helped me further understand and remember a complex concept.”
“We wanted to do this because Dr. Ahlgren shared the idea with us during class and we saw it as a fun opportunity to do something different,” Quintero said.
Houck said that having a new approach was a lot more fun than spending that time at a library. “Because our cookies only made sense if you understood muscular anatomy, explaining each cookie to friends who were not in Ex Phys [exercise physiology] was a great review,” Houck said.
Students earned engagement points for their creative approach to learning the content. “I want my students to have some element of control over their learning in my course, which is why I implemented engagement as a part of the grade,” said Ahlgren. “Students get to determine how they can use and relate to the material in a way that matters to them individually. That tends to make learning more fun...and learning SHOULD be fun.”