Remember Anatomy and Physiology?

paacollins · Jul 28, 2008

I had A and P I and A and P II with two different instructors and I adored both of them. The one who taught A and P II however was a hoot. He is a veterinarian who works for a diagnostic lab doing animal autopsies. As you can imagine, his lectures were um, shall we say, interesting at the least. He had a great sense of humor and class was always lively. He encouraged lots of interraction with the class, which I like. Some students sit in the back of the class and dread being called on. I, however, am one who gets bored with a teacher who only lectures and asks for no interraction.

One memory of this class that stands out in my mind is the last night of class. We had to dissect cats. They came in frozen from a lab and I was so dreading it since I am a major animal lover. The idea that these animals are raised strictly for this procedure is sickening to me. I discovered that once you had the body opened up, it no longer looked like a pet you used to have. lol The strangest part of the night was my instructor brought pizza for everyone then he stood over a cat dissection in progress, chomping on a piece of pizza. Like I said he was a hoot.

I guess the tip I would give you would be to encourage class interraction but remember all your students won't want to participate.

JettaDP · Jul 28, 2008

I loved my A&P instructor. She was hilarious. She talked about sex a lot. Not in a bad way though. We were watching a movie about the process of conception and she threw in some of her own experiences. I can definitely say that she always tried to show a sense of humor and it really kept the class more interested in the subject. One thing she did to help us learn difficult things was to have us write down the explanation as if we were talking to a 5 year old. Like for muscle contractions, I had grass growing and gophers coming out of the ground! It sounds silly but it really helped me to remember and understand the information better. And we would share our version to the rest of the class. We all had some laughs. But it seems that writing our own versions seemed to help everyone.

CracklinRose · Jul 29, 2008

I have not taken A&P yet but will be taking it next semester.....However, my Human Biology Prof is a riot.....he also teaches A&P but his class is always full.

He plays a Jeopardy game with us before each exam. Divides the room into 2 sections and ask questions that will be on the exam....the Team w/the most points gets extra pts added to their exam grade.....before the game he passes around 2 sheets of paper and has each Team put their name on it under Team A or Team B so there is no confusion in the grading....there is only one spokesperson from each Team(yet,the team does talk softly amongst themselves for the correct anwser under a time limit)....always the same team members and spokesperson......it's alot of fun, plus helps us review the information right before the exam......I don't know anyone who doesn' like this Prof.....he truly makes learning fun.....uses lots of mneumonics to help us as well.

Laura77598 · Jul 29, 2008

My A @ P instructor was VERy animated and very lively!! He also DREW PICTURES alot on the White Board. He also tried to explain things in a really simplistic way!! He would relate the material in our lectures in a form we could understand!!!! "Kinda like" or "like this" or "You know how ..." would ALWAYS be used in his lectures. He also had a kinda racy-not dirty- but racy way of relating the material (the sexual material anyway). He JUST HELD our ATTENTION!!!!! He was ALWAYS ANIMATED, ALWAYS INTERESTING, and ALWAYS ATTUNED TO WHAT WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!! HE HAD ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD (office hours) to explain WHATEVER WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!! I will N E V E R FORGET MR. HORINE!!!!!!!! Oh BTW HE WAS REALLY CUTE TOO!!!!! I NEVER WAS BORED IN HIS CLASS, AND HE ALWAYS MADE US FEEL WELCOME IN HIS OFFICE (never like we were interrupting his golfing hour - don't laugh, some of my other profs HAVE made me feel like I was intruding on THEIR TIME.) But Mr. Horine was much like a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He really listened and RELATED the material on a level that his students (SOME OF WHO HAVEN'T BEEN IN A SCIENCE CLASS IN 15-20 YEARS) feel like they could LEARN A N Y ASPECT OF A@ P!!!!!!!

ALSO: A really helpful link is: Medicalmnemonics.com

Recommend THAT ^ to your students!!

Hope That Helps,

Laura

9livesRN, BSN, RN · Jul 29, 2008

let me think...

1- power point lectures, transparencies are so 1900's use power points, have you pictures, and your lecture on the presentations, which will help us better understand what the book is teaching you, pluss with the power points you can stress the most important/relevant information (so we dont waste time on minor issues + it helps on quizzes)

2- be dynamic, like... since AP is a pain (for some) be active on the class room so we can pay attention to you!

my teacher had a bag of hershey kisses, so she would be giving lectures and asking questions in between and who answers it (and answers right) gets a candy! (that got us going!)

3- find interesting information about the chapter, so we can look forward for it, and help with little memorization tecniques, like for the 12 cranial neves/sperm flow/ and such!

when i think of more i will let you know

but power point rocks!

JettaDP · Jul 29, 2008

but power point rocks!

I agree with that! Power points are awesome. They take so much time to put together but they are really useful in the end.

Bicster · Jul 29, 2008

What did your instructor do that made anatomy and physiology information memorable for you? I am an instructor and I want to find ways to make my lessons memorable. Please share anything that was creative, fun, helpful to you that I could incorporate into my lessons. Also, any projects that you were proud of? Thanks so much.

-be knowledgeable in what you are lecturing about

-find useful ways to tie info into the nursing field

-hand back work and grades promptly

-clearly state your expectations

dont look for gimicks. they may or may not work and if they dont, you just end up wasting time. just teach well, thats all students need in the end.

amberp83 · Jul 30, 2008

For me the thing that worked was the A&P teacher I had offered downloads of all his Powerpoint presentations. And in the PP's he often had page # references and bold points that were key to understanding. Also, he was very funny. Lecture was often like attending a stand-up comedy =)

And I totally agree that it is helpful when you relate things to the nursing/medical field. That is was a huge percentage of your students are there for. Answering the question, "Why do I need to know this?" is also very helpful.

aperkins · Nov 6, 2010

There is a great site to get ideas from http://www.medicalmnemonics.com. For those college students that like to play games (I'm sure there are a few) there's a free site http://www.bone-snap.com that has some online flash cards for some of the bone structures, as well as a couple of easy crossword puzzles.

Hope this helps,

Andrew

Lyricalluna · Nov 8, 2010

I agree jeopardy was always fun and helped us get ready for a test. My instructor set up the game in a similar wY and we kept track of points on the board.

wldcard · Nov 8, 2010

Many other posters already touched on topics that really help me in my A&P class: good quality powerpoints that are downloadable and actually pertain to what are on the tests, an interactive instructor, once who uses a lot of examples, someone who doesnt make you feel like you are bothering them with questions, etc.

I would also add that treating students like adults and being completely honest from the beginning about your expectations of them goes a LONG way in making everyone feel at ease and willing to learn. I have had many instructors who give out a syllabus at the beginning of the semester that I have been able to wipe myself with for all the good it did the class.

Be clear about what you expect from your students and don't deviate from what you tell them you will do unless it is ABSOLUTELY necisary. You would be surprised at how much more receptive people will be if you just tell them to their face that YES, taking an all day saturday class WILL suck. And that you WILL have to work hard, but NO it is not impossible if you work hard at it and do the assignments I assign. Most students are willing to work as hard as you wish them to as long as they know from day 1 just how hard that has to be.

Also, if you don't already please give your students a comprehensive exam review before each one in the form of study questions or something similar that actually directly relate in specific ways to the tests you will be giving. Not word for word questions, obviously, however tell your students what specific topics and level of detail they need to study for their exams and not just study chapters 1-5 for the first exam. Specific study goals help me tremendously and my current prof does this. Doesn't guaruntee that I get an A but if I take his reviews and do those with a very healthy amount of reading and review I find that I do well on his exams.