Virtual rat web: A versatile simulation tool for pharmacology education in a variety of settings

Education and outreach activities are crucial elements in the popularization of various scientific fields, including pharmacology. Simulation-based learning can impart scientific knowledge and stimulate critical thinking in both children and adults. Here, we developed a standalone web-based simulation tool, Virtual Rat Web (VRW), to promote a greater understanding of pharmacology and assessed its usefulness in educational and outreach settings. VRW is a web-based application based on the source code of RatCVS, a program developed by Dr. John Dempster (University of Strathclyde) to model cardiovascular pharmacology. We evaluated VRW as part of a model pharmacology class taught to high-school students, and elementary/junior high-school students or older students attending university outreach classes. The two older student groups were given a 60-min class consisting of a brief introduction to drug effects on the cardiovascular system, training on the use of VRW, and a hands-on exercise using VRW to identify noradrenaline and acetylcholine from a panel of anonymized drugs based on their dose-response patterns. Most students correctly identified the effects of noradrenaline and acetylcholine and found VRW to be a more useful learning tool than a passive lecture. The elementary/junior high-school students received a 120-min class combining real-time visualization of the effects of adrenaline and propranolol on the heart rate of zebrafish larvae and hands-on use of VRW to confirm the in vivo observations. This cohort found the strength of VRW in understanding the dose-response. These findings suggest that VRW may be a versatile tool for pharmacology education in various settings.