Fascinating things are happening in Dr. Raucci’s College Anatomy and Physiology classes! They started the school year on a high note, with the students participating in several fun and engaging hands-on lab projects.
Working in groups of four, students were tasked with arranging plastic cups into various shapes, such as a pyramid. The catch is, they could only move the cups using strings that are tied to a rubber band, which must be maneuvered around the cups. Using teamwork and communication skills, they carefully pull the strings to move the cups into the correct positions.
For their next project, they used their knowledge of scientific principles to determine if the PowerBalance band, a product that is marketed for its health and fitness benefits, works as advertised.. They performed a double blind study, concluding that the band does not work any better than a placebo.
Moving on to the blood testing experiment! Using simulated blood representing types A, B, AB, and O, our students conducted chemical tests to discover the various sample’s blood types. Each student was assigned four patients with a specific blood type who needed a blood transfusion. Once they determined their sample’s blood type, they decided whether the blood was suitable to donate to their patients. Students also evaluated slide samples of blood that contained multiple disease processes including leukemia, sickle cell anemia, and mononucleosis and compared those to normal blood smears.
Soon enough, the class set aside their microscopes and broke out a board game. But not just any board game, they played human anatomy battleship! The premise is the same as the classic board game, but to successfully “hit” the opposing player’s targets, students had to correctly guess the locations of an injury on their opponents board by being steered through a body grid using only anatomical directions.
Students then put their surgical skills and anatomical knowledge to the test with their gummy bear dissection project. A bear was placed in one of eight quadrants, each having an anatomical term associated with it. The students were tasked with making careful incisions with a scalpel that best represented the term that was labeled. For example, students were asked to demonstrate a coronal plane in one quadrant, basically cutting the gummy bear into front and back sections.
To cap it all off, students played Anatomical Bingo as a review for their first major exam.
With only a little over a month of school in the books, these students have certainly gotten their fair share of extra fun lessons. We cannot wait to see what they have planned next!
