Help? A&P oral presentation

[colleenrnsw]

Hi, I am new to this site and am taking A&P I. We have to do an oral presentation on anything to do with human physiology (so broad). I am extremely anxious about public speaking and (I think partly for this reason) I am having a difficult time coming up with a topic that the class will find interesting and that is not too difficult to research. We can use power point. Does anyone have suggestions for topic ideas? Or if you have had to do this, do you recall a topic that stood out in your class? Thanks very much.

[det01]

How about how the heart pumps blood through the body? It will not only come up in AP but will also play heavily into future nursing classes.

Here are some things you can put in it:

1. You could teach the class this song - give them all a copy of the words. Great tool for remembering it later as well!

http://www.bloodbook.com/pump_your_blood.html

2. Here is a good diagram. It also has a link on this page where you can print out coloring sheets of the diagram (some people learn that way)

http://www.childrenheartinstitute.org/educate/heartwrk/bloodflw.htm

3. At the end, do some kind of quiz asking about where the blood flow starts and where all it goes from there one place at a time. When someone answers it right, give them some kind of treat (candy, etc.)

[colleenrnsw]

Thanks so much!! That is a creative idea and sounds fun, keeping the class busy since presentations can be boring.

[JentheRN05, RN]

I agree cardiac is a very very interesting thing to talk about.

Second I would choose renal - this is connected obviously to the heart so you could combine them.

Third I would choose brain - much more difficult.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

How about the pathway of a pain impulse when someone stubs their toe?

The more specific you make it, the less muddled all the information becomes. Like for saliva, you could open with "you wake up to the smell of coffee brewing and bacon cooking and the saliva starts flowing in your mouth. What is going on? Let's look at the physiology of saliva.

I was thinking, why is it that our eyes water when we eat something that is hot (spicy hot)? That's a subject that all the students in the class would be able to identify with.

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

How about how the heart pumps blood through the body? It will not only come up in AP but will also play heavily into future nursing classes.

Here are some things you can put in it:

1. You could teach the class this song - give them all a copy of the words. Great tool for remembering it later as well!

http://www.bloodbook.com/pump_your_blood.html

2. Here is a good diagram. It also has a link on this page where you can print out coloring sheets of the diagram (some people learn that way)

http://www.childrenheartinstitute.org/educate/heartwrk/bloodflw.htm

3. At the end, do some kind of quiz asking about where the blood flow starts and where all it goes from there one place at a time. When someone answers it right, give them some kind of treat (candy, etc.)

These are really great ideas!

Another thing we do in the classes we have at my company is while the instructor is presenting, she'll ask questions. (Not AWFULLY difficult ones, but you get my idea.) If you get them right, you get two of these little toy coins in bright colors. If you miss, you get one for effort. You'd be surprised at how competitive it gets....at the end, she has silly little "prizes" (like tiny Gummy dolls or silly ink pens, pencil toppers) for the people with the "most" coins, and tiny tiny bags of candy to give everyone else.

Of course, this would depend on how BIG your class is. I think it would work great in a small class, like we have at my community college. It gives grownups a chance to be a bit silly, and you find yourself really paying attention.

BTW, the two instructors we have here are both RNs!

[colleenrnsw]

Thanks everyone, these are great ideas. and I like the idea of giving out little prizes. Time to start some actual research.