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A Comparative Approach to Human Anatomy Outreach
Author(s) -
Reed James A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.01883
Subject(s) - outreach , human anatomy , medical education , experiential learning , human body , psychology , medicine , anatomy , mathematics education , political science , law
Bringing high school students to the anatomy lab allows them to reinforce topics introduced in their classroom by providing an opportunity for experiential learning. They are able to engage with human tissue, as opposed to models and textbooks. However, whereas often medical and undergraduate students have the luxury of a slower exposure to the dissection of human materials, visiting high school students must obtain a level of comfort very quickly. In an attempt to facilitate this, an outreach activity geared toward high school students visiting the Sanborn Anatomy Lab at the Geisel School of Medicine was developed utilizing a recently created collection of comparative, non‐human, anatomical material; which consists primarily of bones, brains, and hearts. Visiting students view and discuss this material prior to a similar activity using a human cadaver. It has been observed that students participating in this activity are more comfortable and remain engaged throughout the length of the visit. Pre and post surveys are being used to formally confirm observed behavior. It is also possible that this activity could better highlight anatomical concepts such as analogous vs homologous structures, body organization, and form and function than human tissue alone. While the goal of this activity is to make visiting students more comfortable when viewing human cadavers, it could also increase the scope of the lab to include outreach groups with primary interests in biomechanics, evolution, and zoology. Additionally, the small initial investment of creating this collection has increased the utilization and visibility of the Sanborn Lab throughout the Dartmouth College community, with courses from the departments of Anthropology, Biology, and Psychology and Brain Sciences currently utilizing the comparative material and lab. The creation and implementation of a comparative collection could easily be scaled and implemented at any facility conducting similar outreach with minimal financial investment.