Exploring physiology’s past to inspire learning: an engaging undergraduate experience at the University of La Réunion

First-year university students studying medicine and health sciences must acquire and assimilate significant amounts of physiological knowledge, which can result in tedious, passive rote learning. To address such notions and enhance student engagement and interest, we included examples and highlighted luminaries involved in major research and advances in endocrinology within the endocrinology component of a compulsory pathophysiology course in a medical and health sciences program [University of La Réunion (France)]. This intervention focused on the historical discovery of key hormones (secretin and incretins), spanning the discovery of secretin during the early twentieth century up to the role of incretins nearly a century later. Here, we included physiologist Ernest Henry Starling’s experimental setup that led to the discovery of secretin, as well as original figures from his article. Moreover, we discussed the various research stages from the discovery of secretin to incretins by including examples of eminent scientists who contributed to these major advances. Students were required to complete preclass readings that included historical elements and completed online questionnaires before attending endocrinology lectures. They could also pose questions on a dedicated online forum. The formal lectures provided an opportunity to further discuss questions posed on the online forum, to provide feedback on incorrectly answered questions, and to address questions posed by students present in classes. Our educational intervention was well received by the students as it contributed to the development of their general scientific literacy and enhanced their understanding of potential career pathways in health-related science and research.NEW & NOTEWORTHY First-year university students must acquire a large amount of information and concepts about the principles of physiology and may find themselves unaware of the underlying discoveries and scholarship that contributed to such knowledge. We recently included historical elements in our classes for first-year medical and health physiology students by highlighting examples of experiments and the contributions of luminaries involved in major research and advances in endocrinology.