The Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Undergraduate Physiology Quiz Team members are state champs after capturing first place in the Michigan Physiological Society’s Undergraduate Quiz Bowl in June.

The WSU champs competed against six teams: one from Alma College, two from Michigan State University, one from Michigan Technological University and two from Oakland University.

David Abdelnour, Alexander Jakubiec and Majd Yahya make up WSU Team 1. Team 2 consists of Mia Biernat, Russell Elkus and Ada Squires.

The teams are directed by Patrick Mueller, Ph.D., associate professor of Physiology, and coached by Isaac Baiden, Brooke Stevens, Olivia Camp, Nicholas Blackmond, Mary Jarad, Youna Lee and Emily Henson.

“I am very proud of how our Physiology and Basic Medical Sciences graduate students stepped up to volunteer and help the undergraduate students prepare for the Quiz and achieve their first-place finish,” Dr. Mueller said. “I was really impressed by the discipline of both groups of students, as they met weekly in person and online when needed in the weeks leading up to the competition.”

He said each of the graduate students prepared individual review sessions in their area of expertise and provided supplemental information to the students online after each session. They prepared with practice questions using the online Kahoot platform, which served as the basis of the actual competition.

“It was true collaborative effort across schools, departments and disciplines, including help from faculty in Biological Sciences in identifying the undergraduate team members.” Dr. Mueller said. “We also want to give a shout out to the Department of Physiology and the Office of Alumni Affairs for purchasing and providing team shirts.”

This year marked the sixth year of the competition. WSU teams captured first place in 2017 and 2018, and second in 2019. 

The competition consists of multiple-choice questions using the Kahoot audience response platform. The first round is mostly knowledge-based Physiology questions, and winning teams at that level advance to the second round, where they are asked more integrative questions.