Using Game of Thrones to teach physiology during lockdown and beyond.

During the pandemic, there was a requirement to provide additional synchronous live tutorials that would engage students whilst encouraging them to problem-solve and use their imagination. We aimed to provide memorable topics where students would actively participate and apply what physiology and pharmacology they had learned in classes. Given the popularity of Game of Thrones and use of fictional poisons throughout the TV series and books, we used different storylines to get the students to work out how fictional poisons/drugs might affect nervous system function. Previous work by Berg & Polvsing (2016), Fitzgerald (2018) and Brown et al. (2017) have all reported the worth of using fictional characters to help students expand and demonstrate their understanding of complex biomedical concepts. This format of tutorial continued after a return to face-to-face classes and still provides suitable scenario material for a flipped classroom physiology tutorial. Students (n = 80 in year 1 of delivery, n = 105 in year 2) did not have to be aware of the content of the television programme but there were free clips on platforms such as YouTube to look up the fictional events described if the students wished to. Some introductory material was provided to highlight that many poisons (both fictional and real)target mechanisms and processes that are commonly discussed in a range of our courses relating to neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology. We facilitated hour-long tutorial sessions by using a series of scenarios and prompt questions to stimulate student discussion and get them to theorise as to how fictional poisons worked and the consequences of disrupting physiological mechanisms. There was simultaneous delivery of these sessions for students on campus and those studying online. Central anonymised university feedback provided by students indicated positive views of this way of teaching physiological concepts (Year 1: 95% rated it 5/5 as totally meeting their learning needs, with 5% rating it 4/5; Year 2: 94.29% rated it 5/5, 5.71% rated it 4/5 in terms of meeting their learning needs).Our perceptions were that students were much better at demonstrating their mastery of the discipline-specific material when asked about it in this fictional context, compared to ‘dry’ questions that related to everyday pharmacology or physiology problems. A far greater number of students volunteered answers or questions during the sessions that used such fictional scenarios as the basis for tutorial work. There were a far greater number of follow-up questions via email from individual students after the sessions took place when compared to the previous problem-solving tutorials that took place pre-pandemic. We conclude that use of pop culture references may allow students to demonstrate not only their mastery of discipline-specific knowledge, but also encourages greater participation, problem-solving, lateral thinking, and understanding of physiological concepts.