Socratic Seminar with Data: A Strategy to Support Student Discourse and Understanding.

A Socratic seminar can be a powerful tool for increasing students' ability to analyze and interpret data. Most commonly used for text-based discussion, we found that using Socratic seminar to engage students with data contributes to student understanding by allowing them to reason through and process complex information as a group. This approach also provides teachers with insights about student misconceptions and understanding of concepts by listening to the student-driven discussion. This article reports on Socratic seminar in the context of a high school type 2 diabetes curriculum that explores gene and environment interactions. A case study illustrates how Socratic seminar is applied in a classroom and how students engage with the process. General characteristics of Socratic seminar are discussed at the end of the article.

Topical Honey in the Management of Pediatric Peritoneal Dialysis Exit Sites.

International guidelines in peritoneal dialysis (PD) advocate for regular application of topical mupirocin in chronic PD exit-site care. A strong evidence base links this treatment to reduced rates of exit-site infections and peritonitis. However, emerging reports of increasing mupirocin resistance and gram-negative infections are threatening the long-term viability of topical antibiotic ointments as a prophylactic treatment. Medical grade honey has multiple proven antibacterial and wound healing properties. High-quality randomized controlled trial evidence (the HONEYPOT trial), however, does not support the use of topical medical-grade honey over antibiotic ointments for the prevention of exit-site infection and peritonitis in adults. Pediatric representation in these studies is low, and these findings may not extrapolate to the pediatric context, which has a higher incidence of PD-related infection and a lower prevalence of diabetes.We present a series of 8 pediatric patients treated with topical Medihoney (Comvita, Paengaroa, New Zealand) in the context of poor exit-site condition, persistent infection, and recurrent granuloma where the addition of honey was felt to produce remarkable improvement in exit-site status.Medihoney is the first-line prophylactic exit-site ointment in PD exit sites at our institution and has been implicated in the salvage of peritoneal access in some patients. No exclusively pediatric studies have been performed; however, existing literature suggests a beneficial effect in promoting healing of infected wounds with a lower risk of developing antimicrobial resistance.