An online version of the Action Potential Experiments simulation is available. The original  simulation was published by the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, and is still available from this link at the BioQUEST site. That version runs only on Windows XP and earlier, and Mac OS9. However, using video screen capture technology, the online version will run on any device.

Action Potential Experiments is a demonstration/simulation laboratory for neurophysiology based on the “sodium theory” as originally formulated and tested by A. L. Hodgkin and his colleagues. It includes simulations of the original experiments of Hodgkins and Huxley, and of the classic voltage clamp and patch clamp experiments, as well as an animated illustration of the “sodium theory” explanation of Nernst potentials for potassium and sodium ions. The student can perform simple ion concentration experiments to test the predictions of the theory, similar to the experiments originally performed by Hodgkin and Huxley.

Check it out at https://www.caseitproject.org/action-potential-experiments/.

Case It!  was awarded an AAAS Science Prize for Inquiry-based Instruction (IBI).  An essay describing the project was published in the July 27, 2012 issue of Science (“Engaging Students in Molecular Biology via Case-Based Learning“).

From the Science web site:  “The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) has been established to encourage innovation and excellence in education by recognizing outstanding, inquiry-based science and design-based engineering education modules. This type of education is a form of active learning wherein the instructor provides a question, or a challenge, and a general set of procedures that can be used to answer it. The students then produce an explanation or answer that is based on the evidence that they collect from appropriate resource materials or experimental processes that are, at least in part, of the students own proposal.”

More information is available in the press release from AAAS, and the editorial by Bruce Alberts, Editor in Chief of Science.