Different tools have been used to facilitate the teaching and learning process in different areas of knowledge. Practical activities represent a form of teaching in which students not only listen to theoretical concepts but are also able to link theory and practice, and their importance in the biological sciences is notable. Sometimes, however, there is neither the time nor the resources to promote laboratory practices in physiology classes. In this sense, home-based practical activities may be an interesting alternative. Here, different approaches of practical activities were used and students’ perceptions of the contributions of home-based practical activities (HBPA) and laboratory-based practical activities (LBPA) for physiology learning were collected. After each approach, the students evaluated the activities through an anonymous questionnaire. A total of 49 students completed the questionnaires, and the results demonstrate that both HBPA and LBPA were considered important contributors to physiology learning but that this contribution was more significant in the case of LBPA (χ² = 4.356, P = 0.037).

laboratory practices are widely used in the teaching of scientific concepts in biology and other sciences, and they increase students’ interest, motivation, scientific practical skills, problem-solving abilities, and understanding of the nature of science ( 13 ). Practical activities are an interactive method of teaching and are important for ensuring that students are not only listening to the concepts but also actually understanding the topic and associating theory and application ( 19 ).

Human physiology is one of the basic sciences that is essential for professional practice in health and biological science, in addition to biochemistry, neuroscience, molecular biology, immunology, pathology, pharmacology, and others. The contents of physiology will be essential in students’ future professional practice and to promote critical thinking and decision making, to associate information, and to make the student/professional capable of precisely differentiating the physiological from the pathological ( 8 ). However, undergraduate students in health and biological areas may experience difficulties with basic and complex topics in human physiology. These difficulties increase the importance of using practical approaches to help students in understanding physiology ( 6 , 19 ).

It is known that, for ethical reasons, animal experimentation is no longer used in practical classes. In 1994, Samsel et al. ( 18 ) proposed a new approach to teaching practical physiology, using computer simulations to teach cardiovascular physiology, instead of animals. Since then, more strategies have been proposed to replace the use of animals for teaching purposes ( 2 , 16 ). Nonetheless, practices occasionally need to be adequate according to the available resources and the structure of the laboratory/room/university, which has made professors use alternative methods of practical teaching ( 16 , 18 ) or other methods instead. Some inexpensive methods, such as the use of video clips ( 11 ), puzzles ( 17 ), and other games ( 4 ), can be interesting alternatives. All of these strategies require creative work and planning by the professor and also should be based on evidence to ensure that professors are improving the teaching process ( 14 ). However, although these alternatives are valid and help students’ learning, they do not actually replace practical work.

So practical activities are important in the teaching of human physiology, but sometimes it is hard promote this type of teaching at some universities. Sometimes the university does not have either the laboratories or time in the curriculum for this. Considering this reality, we propose to compare the effectiveness of home-based (HBPA) and laboratory-based practical activities (LBPA) in physiology learning according students’ perceptions. Household practices can be performed in a shorter period of time and also at the student’s convenience; these are a great advantage because students in the health area sometimes must spend a considerable amount of time in lectures ( 15 ). Thus, we proposed two types of physiology practical activities (HBPA and LBPA) to undergraduate students of human physiology courses and evaluated their perception about these two different approaches. According to our knowledge, this is the first time that the use of HBPA was evaluated and compared with LBPA.