Claudia I Stanescu

Interests

Research

Scholarship of teaching and learning

Teaching

Human Anatomy and Physiology (PSIO 201/202)Musculoskeletal Physiology (PSIO 495M)Functional AnatomyGross Anatomy

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Aguilar-Rocca, N., Carney Anderson, L., Crecelius, A., French, M., Johnson, K., McFarland, J., Rogers, J., Stanescu, C. I., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). Where do we go from here: a forward-thinking vision for physiology undergraduate education.. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00190.2019
• Carney-Anderson, L., Rogers, J., Stanescu, C. I., French, M., VanRyn, V. R., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). Physiology educators find community in the Physiology Majors Interest Group. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00182.2019
• Rankin, L. L., Kanady, J. D., & Stanescu, C. I. (2020). Graduate Teaching Assistant Training Program at the University of Arizona. FASEB Journal.
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  Abstract
• Rogers, J., Stanescu, C. I., Patrick, C. L., McFarland, J. L., & Crecelius, A. R. (2020). The 2019 P-MIG Student Survey report and capturing the undergraduate perspective of physiology programming.. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00189.2019
• Stanescu, C. I., Crecelius, A. R., Crosswhite, P., McFarland, J., & Rogers, J. (2020). The 2019 P-MIG Student Survey report and capturing the undergraduate perspective of physiology programming. Advances in Physiology Education, 44(4), 684-696. doi:10.1152/advan.00189.2019
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  The aim of the 2019 Student Survey was to inform the Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG) of characteristics of undergraduates enrolled in physiology courses or degree programs from across the United States, to be used as one input source for the development of program-level guidelines. There were 1,389 participants from seven universities who completed the 2019 P-MIG Student Survey. Thirty-seven percent reported enrollment in a physiology/human physiology major; allied health-related programs were the second most common (24%). Sixty-one percent of respondents reported attending a community college, the majority of whom enrolled in one or more courses at a community college while in high school (44%). Of participants who reported transferring coursework from one institution to another, 72% reported coursework transferred as expected. Homeostasis and structure/function were the two core concepts common to the top rankings for self-reported mastery, the expectation to be remembered in 5 yr, and deemed to be career relevant. Survey respondents indicated high engagement in co-curricular activities, with 72% participating or planning to participate in job shadowing opportunities, followed by volunteering (57%) and internships (50%). Over one-half of all survey participants indicated they “strongly agree” that their coursework and undergraduate programming has prepared them for success in their field of study. While the majority of respondents were satisfied with the academic advising received, additional guidance with regard to career choices and non-coursework professional development opportunities may be beneficial. Taken together, the collective data provides information from current physiology students that may inform development of consensus guidelines regarding curriculum, professional skills, and advising for undergraduate physiology degree programs.
• Stanescu, C. I., Rogers, J., Aguilar-Roca, N., Halliwill, J. R., Poteracki, J. M., Crecelius, A. R., Anderson, L. C., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). The case for coordinating efforts to establish program guidelines and strengthen physiology undergraduate degree programs. Advances in Physiology Education, 44(4), 602-606. doi:10.1152/advan.00076.2020
• Stanescu, C. I., Rogers, J., Anderson, L. C., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). Evaluation of core concepts of physiology in undergraduate physiology curricula: results from faculty and student surveys. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:10.1152/advan.00187.2019
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  Unlike other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines, program guidelines for undergraduate physiology degree programs have yet to be firmly established. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of physiology core concepts within undergraduate physiology curricula to discern whether a common subset could be broadly recommended for inclusion in programmatic guidelines. A curricular survey tool was developed to evaluate the depth to which each core concept was included in physiology curricula. Seven self-selected physiology programs assessed core concept inclusion across all courses within the major (0 = not covered, 1 = minimally covered, and 2 = covered to a great extent). The top core concepts ranked by each institution varied considerably, but all were robustly represented across programs. The top five combined rankings for all institutions were as follows: 1) interdependence (1.47 ± 0.63); 2) structure/function (1.46 ± 0.72); 3) homeostasis (1.45 ± 0.71); 4) scientific reasoning (1.44 ± 0.70); and 5) cell-cell communication (1.38 ± 0.75). No common subset of specific core concepts was evident among the seven participating institutions. Next, results were compared with recent Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG) faculty and student surveys that ascertained perceptions of the top five most important core concepts. Three core concepts (homeostasis, structure/function, cell-cell communication) appeared in the top five in more than one-half of survey questions included. We recommend that future programmatic guidelines focus on inclusion of the core concepts of physiology as general models to scaffold learning in physiology curricula, but the programmatic guidelines should allow flexibility in the core concepts emphasized based on program objectives.
• Stanescu, C. I., Rogers, J., Wehrwein, E. A., & Carney-Anderson, L. (2020). Evaluation of Core Concepts of Physiology in Physiology Curricula: Results from Faculty Surveys. The FASEB Journal, 34(S1), 1-1. doi:10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.04479
• Stanescu, C. I., Stanescu, C. I., Anderson, L. C., Anderson, L. C., Rogers, J., Rogers, J., French, M. B., French, M. B., VanRyn, V. S., VanRyn, V. S., Wehrwein, E. A., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). Physiology educators find community in the Physiology Majors Interest Group. Advances in Physiology Education, 44(4), 620-625. doi:10.1152/advan.00182.2019
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  The Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG) is a grass-roots consortium of physiology educators with the common interest of creating program-level guidelines for undergraduate physiology and related programs. A key component of the consortium's activities are the annual P-MIG conferences that have been held at different universities over the past 3 yr (Michigan State University, 2017; University of Arizona, 2018; and University of Minnesota, 2019). Postconference surveys indicate that the conferences are highly valued by the participants, as they have provided an opportunity to get to know others who are passionate about undergraduate education, to discuss best practices in program and course delivery, and to form working groups with the goal to develop national and international guidelines for physiology program delivery and assessment.
• Stanescu, C. I., Wehrwein, E. A., Carney-Anderson, L., & Rogers, J. (2020). Evaluation of Core Concepts of Physiology in Physiology Curricula: Results from Faculty Surveys. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00187.2019
• Stanescu, C. I., Wehrwein, E. A., Rogers, J., McFarland, J., Johnson, K. M., French, M., Crecelius, A. R., Anderson, L. C., & Aguilar-Roca, N. (2020). Where do we go from here: a forward-thinking vision for physiology undergraduate education. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:10.1152/advan.00190.2019
• Stanescu, C., Kanady, J., & Rankin, L. (. (2020). Graduate Teaching Assistant Training Program at the University of Arizona. The FASEB Journal, 34(S1), 1-1. doi:10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.04823
• Steele, K. J., VanRyn, V. S., Stanescu, C. I., Rogers, J., & Wehrwein, E. A. (2020). Start with the end in mind: using student career aspirations and employment data to inform curriculum design for physiology undergraduate degree programs.. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00167.2020
• Wehrwein, E. A., Crecelius, A. R., Carney-Anderson, L., Stanescu, C. I., Poteracki, J., Halliwill, J., Aguilar-Roca, N., & Rogers, J. (2020). The case for coordinating efforts to establish program guidelines and strengthen physiology undergraduate degree programs.. Advances in Physiology Education. doi:https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00076.2020
• Stanescu, C. I., Stanescu, C. I., Wehrwein, E. A., Wehrwein, E. A., VanRyn, V., VanRyn, V., Rogers, J., & Rogers, J. (2019). Report from the Physiology Majors Interest Group (P‐MIG): Core Concepts of Physiology. The FASEB Journal. doi:10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.766.10
• Stanescu, C. I., Stanescu, C. I., Wehrwein, E. A., Wehrwein, E. A., Osborn, J. L., Osborn, J. L., Rogers, J., Rogers, J., VanRyn, V., & VanRyn, V. (2018). Current State of Physiology Undergraduate Degree Programs and Curricula: Survey Results from the Physiology Majors Interest Group Inaugural Meeting. The FASEB Journal. doi:10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.629.13
• Stanescu, C. I., Wehrwein, E. A., Osborn, J. L., Rogers, J., & VanRyn, V. (2017). Report from the inaugural physiology majors interest group meeting. The Physiologist, 60(6).
• Stanescu, C. I., Delamere, N. A., & Henriksen, E. J. (2015). Program Assessment in a Large Undergraduate Physiology Curriculum. The FASEB Journal. doi:10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.541.36
• Wright, J. A., Williams, D. P., Weiss, L., Stanescu, C. I., Lohman, T. G., Going, S. B., & Cussler, E. (2005). Changes In Fat Mass, Interleukin-6, And C-reactive Protein In Postmenopausal Women. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 37(Supplement), S372-S373. doi:10.1249/00005768-200505001-01937
• Wright, J., Williams, D. P., Stanescu, C. I., Lohman, T. G., Going, S. B., Cussler, E. C., & Bartell-weiss, L. (2005). Effect Of Abdominal And Total Fat On C-reactive Protein Levels In Postmenopausal Women. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 37(Supplement), S303-S304. doi:10.1249/00005768-200505001-01585
• Stanescu, C. I., Williams, D. P., Stanescu, C. I., Lohman, T. G., Going, S. B., Cussler, E., & Bartell-weiss, L. (2004). Effect of Resistance Training on C-Reactive Protein in Postmenopausal Women. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36(5), S189. doi:10.1097/00005768-200405001-00904
• Williams, D. P., Stanescu, C. I., Lohman, T. G., Going, S. B., Cussler, E., & Bartell-weiss, L. (2004). Effect of Resistance Training on C-Reactive Protein in Postmenopausal Women. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 36(Supplement), S189. doi:10.1249/00005768-200405001-00904

Presentations

• Stanescu, C. I., & Roof, A. K. (2023, August). Hurdles to Student Learning. Physiology Majors Interest Group Conference.
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  Oral presentation session at PMIG conference. In addition to being one of four presenters, I also facilitated the discussion at the end of the session.

Poster Presentations

• Stanescu, C. I. (2017, April). Efficacy of Popular Diets for Weight Loss & Weight Maintenance in Adults. Physiology Spring Poster Session.
• Stanescu, C. I., Cohen, Z., & Price, E. A. (2016, October). Physiology Undergraduate Curricular Changes in Response to Program Assessment. Arizona Physiological Society. Tucson, AZ: American Physiological Society.

Others

• Stanescu, C. I. (2022, October). Physiology Program Assessment.
• Stanescu, C. I. (2021, November). Physiology Program Assessment. Taskstream.
• Stanescu, C. I. (2020, December). Physiology Program Assessment. Taskstream.
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  The yearly program assessment results submitted to the University via Taskstream
• Stanescu, C. I. (2019, September). Physiology Program Assessment Report.
• Stanescu, C. I. (2018, August). Physiology Program Assessment Report. Taskstream.
• Stanescu, C. I. (2017, August). Physiology Program Assessment. Taskstream.
• Stanescu, C. I. (2016, July). Physiology Program Assessment. University of Arizona Assessment website. http://assessment.arizona.edu/med/physiology
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  The University of Arizona requires all academic programs to update their assessment plan including their program student learning outcomes, assessment activities, assessment findings and changes in response to findings. The assessment data needs to be updated yearly.