3D Facility for Biomedical Sciences:
Animation, Visualization, and Printing

Located on Level 2 of Avedisian Hall

Overview About 3D Animation 3D Printing 3D Teaching Lab

Student Feedback

The student response to our teaching animation clips has been very positive. Some samples of the students’ comments are compiled below:

  • I believe that it is a very helpful tool because it helps students grasp it better if they see a graphical/visual demonstration.
  • I am a visual person and grasp the concepts better when I see what is happening. Like many people, I can’t always make sense of just reading what is in a book.
  • Using animations to express abstract ideas like drug action at a synapse is extremely helpful. I strongly support using this idea in other pharmacy courses.
  • I like it very much – it helps me visualize what the professors are talking about – especially since we are learning about processes that can’t be seen by the naked eye.
  • I thought it was great that I could actually see what was happening and the actual chemical structure of Fluoxetine block the transport protein. I now understand how that drug works and will not forget it. It was easy to learn and was not boring. It would be great to have that feature in every class. I think that animation is a good idea, and seeing a visual is very helpful and it is a good way to keep attention in class, instead of merely listening to a lecture.
  • I thought the animation was extremely useful for the understanding of how Prozac works on a molecular level. I have always thought that visual presentations provide for a greater understanding of the concept. I think I often remember more about a subject when I visualize it, or see how it works verses hearing a professor describe the mechanisms, etc.
  • It is extremely helpful in learning pharmacology and understanding physiological processes. When a drug is presented, it is easier to vision where and how it interacts to cause its response.
  • It makes the class more interesting… something different and it helped put words into motion so to speak.
  • I think using the animation is an excellent idea to use as a teaching tool. It helps you to visualize exactly what happens, in addition to being told what happens.
  • Personally when I see something like the animation I remember the concept longer. I really think more professors should try to use animations to explain their lectures, when applicable.
  • I think animation is a clear and simple way to demonstrate complex topics that don’t easily translate to the written or drawn word. Three dimensional systems in the body will greatly benefit from being shown as animations. Mental pictures from a lecture or picture in a text aren’t always especially accurate when trying to understand important chemical ideas.
  • It’s definitely the best way to show an example. A book cannot show movement, so some of the information is lost in the translation.
  • I think it is an excellent way to help students visualize and emphasize that this is what actually occurs in our body every day.
  • The animation makes a good teaching tool because it helps put a picture to the mechanisms and ideas. You are more likely to remember a process or information if you can see it in your head, and by physically seeing an animation of it, it is easier to recall. Also, the animation is simple: simple ideas get the point across, it’s easy to understand and it’s easy to remember.
  • I think the use of animation is an ideal way of bringing the information from the textbooks & lectures into focus. This is especially helpful for those of us who find it difficult, at times impossible, to develop a realistic mental image from black & white text or, at best, a stationary photo. If a picture is worth a thousand words then these types of animations are invaluable. You get more of a grasp on a concept through a 1 min. animation than from 2 hours of reading a text. Anything that makes learning more efficient is good.
  • I think that animation is an excellent tool in education especially for demonstrating difficult concepts. After watching the animation, I felt it was easier to grasp the concept. Many students are visual learners and will walk away with a much better understanding after seeing an animation than they would with just lecture. I personally think it also helps students remember the material better since I can still visualize the animation in my head. Animation is a very good teaching tool, it gives students a chance to visualize the information that they are receiving from lecture and course notes.
  • I believe the use of animations could benefit most students in any course.
  • The animation provides an avenue for students to see complex interactions and theories simplified and allows them more easily grasped. In this day and age, with the predominance of computers, it is beneficial for professors to utilize these strong tools and provide a medium of learning otherwise unable to be seen. Animation in a sense is the new “hands on” tool, which previously could only be done in laboratories and physically using hands. Now, using the computers it is possible for a “new hands” on experience to be had. The instructor may interact with the model and alter it in ways so the idea may be grasped by everyone in the room. The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is not sufficient to explain what this new form of 3d animation can do.
  • I can see this idea flourishing in the future to be applied to most aspects of the pharmacy curriculum. It would allow often times hard concepts to be explained and grasped more easily. The educational experience of the student would be greatly impacted from such advancements and should definitely be pursued by the faculty of not only this college but of colleges across the country.