Presented By: Amin Shah, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Co-Authors: Kelsey Baker, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Angela Martinez, University of Pittsburgh
Daneil Salinas, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Purpose
The core physiological concepts which are highly theoretical when delivered via didactic lectures, can be reinforced through experiential learning experiences. Our goal was to develop and incorporate experiential learning of skeletal muscle physiology lab activity that would improve medical students' understanding of muscle length-tension relationship and the effect of fatigue on muscle strength.

Methods
The present study was done in the fall semester of 2 consecutive years from 2022 to 2023 in the Musculoskeletal and Dermatology Module in the undergraduate MD pre-clerkship curriculum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Students performed two experiments using an HHD: (1) The Elbow Flexion Experiment which was used to obtain measurements of force produced by the bicep muscles at 6 different angles, and (2) the Fatigue Experiment which was used to determine the effect of fatigue on hand muscle strength. Following lab activity, students submitted the assignments (graphs of flexion experiment and graph of the effect of fatigue on pinch strength with an explanation of physiological principles behind the observation).

Results
The response rate of participants were 100% and 55.76% in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Demographic data revealed that the majority of student participants were Hispanic/Latino (50.46%) followed by white/Caucasian (18.69%), and Asian (11.21%). Furthermore, 55.14% were male and 44.85% were female students. Post-activity survey data demonstrated that 98.5% of students had agreed or strongly agreed with their ability to use HHD to collect muscle force measurement and understand the physiological principles of muscle length-tension relationship and the effect of fatigue on hand muscle strength.

Conclusion
The experiential learning activity provided an active approach to understanding the physiological concepts of muscle length-tension relationship and the effect of fatigue on hand muscle strength. Evaluation of students' experience of experiential learning activity demonstrated their understanding of underlying physiological principles of different aspects of skeletal muscle physiology.