Undergraduate students as promoters of science dissemination: a strategy to increase students' interest in physiology.

PHYSIOLOGY TEACHING-LEARNING METHODS have passed through several changes over the years. This can be seen considering the constancy of publications that bring suggestions for innovations in this area, like papers published in specialized journals such as Advances in Physiology Education. However, considering that the profile of our students is increasingly dynamic and there has been a challenge to propose methodologies to attract their attention, new proposals are still necessary to allow teaching to be effective. The traditional model of education appears to be linked to the teacher, who resists the use of tools and methods designed to provide something different to the student, depriving the student of new things or even the motivation to realize the applicability of knowledge (2). There are several ways to provide a class that escapes the traditional teaching model. This can be done through lessons with videos, lectures, seminars, workshops, experimental practices, and use of information and communication technologies, among others. The teachers have to realize what they can use to improve the class and teaching, including an active posture and appropriate teaching tools (13). Therefore, it is necessary to have a perception of the physiology professor who escapes the role of a knowledge transmitter and characterize the physiology professor as someone able to awaken in students a desire to achieve in academic life as a student and later as a professional; this is not a simple task (1). Physiology is part of health undergraduate courses, and, considering that the population requires health professionals responsible and able to provide quality service, the school and university share responsibility in the formation and performance of these professionals; thus, teachers need to guide students in a way that facilitates the process of building knowledge. Considering the structure of universities, it is know that it is not always possible or simple to contemplate classes taught satisfactorily with the available tools (2). In this sense, creativity is an important tool (10), especially in education (9). In this article, we report on an experience in the teaching of physiology to health undergraduate courses in a southern Brazil university. We propose the active participation of physiology students in actions for science dissemination during Brain Awareness Week (BAW), which aimed to increase their interest in physiology. BAW