The Body’s Bodyguards - an illustrative narrative about the immune system
Immunology is taught linearly but is understood circularly. This is the biggest challenge with the course ‘Immunology’ according to immunologists Jan Pravsgaard and Martin Kongsbak-Wismann. A new podcast-series uses analogies, humor and sound effects as reminders before the students go to class.
TRUST THE PROCESS
“Trust the process”. That is how two students in the course ’Immunology’ (in the fifth semester of medicine) open the podcast series ‘The Body’s Bodyguards’. The connections between the immune system’s many functions are something you understand once you have been through all the individual parts. This generates frustration among some students when they are in the learning process, as it is hard to see the bigger picture. That is why two of the teachers on the course have made a podcast series about the most central parts of the immune system. According to Martin Kongsbak-Wisman the podcast format helps with conveying it in a new way:
The Body’s Bodyguards is a dialogue between me and Jan. When we only have sound, it forces us as teachers to disseminate our academic field in a different language. Podcasts give a more simplified introduction to the curriculum, and it is something the students can listen to on the way to class, where we go through the material in a more traditional way.
All episodes are available at the start of the course. This way, the students can gain an insight into some of the areas of the immune system that are at the end of the course, thus acknowledging some of the frustrations that arise from learning linearly and understanding circularly.
T-REX, SMOKECANNONS AND AIRPORT SCANNERS
Storytelling can be difficult when you are talking cells, bacteria, and viruses. But for Jan Pravsgaard and Martin Kongsbak-Wismann it has been crucial that the podcast series could contribute with a fresh perspective on the immune system: a story with more imagery.
They found the solution in analogies. Jan Pravsgaard elaborates: “When we're talking about viruses as burglars or T-cells as special forces we are trying to explain the processes happening in the body with a different language. Our hope is that the students can utilize the analogies we have created in the podcast when we meet in class, and thus more easily translate them into the correct key terms.”
Jan and Martin used ChatGPT (Generative AI) as a sparring partner to find creative presentations of their subject area. To Martin Kongsbak-Wismann the process has been fun but also challenging. “Combined we have 20 years of experience with teaching in the immune system and normally we have not struggled with conveying our knowledge when we have pictures and figures to assist us. But it has been a rich learning experience for us as well to rethink our teaching of the complicated subject area when we were only able to use sound.”
For the series’ introduction AI has been used to generate the speaker voice. Listen here to how the series and its analogies are presented to the students:
Listen (In Danish)
FROM WORKSHOP TO PODCAST SERIES
Last year, the two immunologists got the chance to try some of their ideas in a podcast workshop distributed by COBL. To the media producer Christian Schmidt, who facilitated the workshop and has helped produce the Body’s Bodyguard, the partnership has been about getting the two teachers to work with the strengths that the podcast format brings.
” Jan and Martin’s voices get right into the students’ ears. It creates an intimate learning space. That is why I am happy that they have brought their personalities into the project. They manage to balance their own humor and analogies with the academic level that is expected of UCPH. My job has been to carry on their humor and analogies to the sound design and maintain the personalities that the student’s know from class.”
T-Regs – you mean like the dinosaur?
FROM ABSALON TO EVERYONE
The podcast series was introduced to the students in the immunology course in November 2024. The topics of the seven episodes produced were chosen based on the seven limited SAU teaching courses supplied in the course. According to Jan Pravsgaard the students have received the new initiative well: “We know that the students learn differently. That is why we put work into offering them different tools like quizzes, videos and now podcasts. Their initial receival of The Body’s Bodyguard has been incredibly positive.”
During the course it became clear to the two teachers that the use of analogies creates new opportunities. The imagery and conversational format make the immune system accessible to a broader group of people that do not have the same prerequisites as the students at the Medicine education. That is why they have chosen to make the series accessible to UCPH’s open podcast platform as well as popular podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcast and Podimo.
Already since the last episode was finished, Jan and Martin have gotten new ideas for a season 2 of The Body’s Bodyguards. Time will tell if it is coming or not. But if you subscribe to their channel, where you listen to podcasts, you automatically get a notification when the creativity again begins to bloom with the two immunologists.