How to Remember the Foramina of the Cranial Floor of the Skull

Learning all the features of the human skull can be intimidating at first. Especially all the many holes—or foramina—of the skull. 

To help us remember complex sets of information, we can use a helpful mnemonic phrase. Mnemonic phrases, sentences, and words are those that help us remember. That's what mnemonic means—related to memory.

A mnemonic phrase that I've used to help remind us of the anatomical locations and names of the paired foramina in the cranial floor is this: 

Old Rotund Owls Spin Lazily Across Jugs. 

FORAMEN	REMINDER
optic	old
rotundum	rotund
ovale	owls
spinosum	spin
lacerum	lazily
acoustic	across
jugular	jugs

Watch this brief video for an overview of the cranial floor foramina and a walk-through of the suggested mnemonic: Return to editingCranial Foramina | Mnemonic Phrase 

Want to know more?

• Mnemonics for A&P |Memory aids for anatomy & physiology
• Use a Virtual Study Skeleton to Learn Bones & Markings
• Learning bones & skeletal features

Coloring Books Are Powerful Study Tools (And They Help Manage Stress)

When I was an undergraduate, a friend at another college showed me the coloring book she was using for her anatomy class. Yikes! A coloring book for a college anatomy class?! Honestly, I thought the idea was ridiculous. Even though my friend swore to me that it helped her learn anatomy.

But then I took a close look at that coloring book and realized that it wasn't exactly like those circus coloring books I loved as a child. These drawings were much more detailed. They included the important structures of the human body that I needed to know. Yet, it still looked like fun!

When I became an A&P teacher, I remembered that experience and looked further into coloring books as learning tools for human anatomy and physiology.

What I found was that coloring exercises have several advantages in studying when compared more traditional study methods—such as reviewing notes and highlighting textbooks. These include:

• Coloring an anatomical diagram is multisensory. Besides reading and spatial vision processing, your brain is also processing your kinesthetic or "muscle" senses. Therefore, you are using more parts of of your brain to process the information. And that means that you are forming more memories than when engaging fewer senses. More "copies" of these memories formed makes it easier to retrieve those memories later, when you need them.


• Coloring exercises take time. Therefore, doing them forces you to slow down. You can't merely skim over notes, diagrams, or text as you might when doing traditional study tasks. You have to spend time, thus making it more likely that you'll really engage meaningfully with the content.


• Coloring a diagram can help identify and correct misconceptions. Because you want to fill in all the available blank spaces in a drawing, you won't miss details that would have otherwise escaped your notice. Besides that, you'll be forced to see where the exact boundaries of each structure are, how they connect with other nearby structures, and where some parts may "hide" beneath other parts. 


• Coloring is relaxing. In fact, so-called adult coloring books are now very popular for the purpose of stress relief and relaxation. They can produce an almost meditative, open mindset. When dealing with the sometimes overwhelming nature of studying A&P, doesn't a bit of relaxation sound like just thing you need? Wouldn't some coloring just before a test or exam get your mind in a better place than the anxious fretting that you might otherwise be doing?


• Coloring can support relationships. Coloring alongside your study buddies can be a good way to build rapport that helps learning in other ways. And you can help each other figure out tricky spots when you may not be quite sure which part should be colored—is it part of this structure or that one? But it's also good for supporting relationships with friends and family members who get to spend less time with you now that you are working so hard on your A&P class. 

There are many coloring books for A&P available. One I like is Mosby's Anatomy and Physiology Coloring Book. That one and others can be found at Amazon or in your school's bookstore.

I suggest using colored pencils. They are easier to carry with you than crayons and get into the finer details of the diagrams more easily. Felt-tip pens are a good second choice, but they sometimes bleed through the page onto other diagrams

I also suggest keeping blank sheets of paper between the leaves of the coloring book, to prevent colors smearing—or smudging onto facing diagrams or text. An even better strategy is to remove each page before coloring it. Then, when you are finished, the colored diagram can become part of your set of notes for that topic.

So yeah, coloring books for college seem silly at first. Really silly. But I can tell you that I've seen many, many students benefit from them in learning A&P! So really, they're not so silly, after all!

Use a Virtual Study Skeleton to Learn Bones & Markings

Learning the bones and markings of the human skeleton can be quite a challenge. Most students do their best learning by repeated practice with a study skeleton in the learning lab.

The problem is, one doesn't always have access to study skeletons. Wouldn't it be great if you had a study skeleton anytime you want to spend a few minutes of practice?

A free or "open" learning resource called eSkeletons let's you do that!

This online tool is not exactly a "real" study skeleton, but it's the next best thing. It's an always-on, always-available virtual study skeleton.

Check out my video walk-through to see if this A&P study tool might work you.

Click here for more tips to help you learn the human skeleton.

How the Ears Hear

When studying the rather complex structure and function of the ear and hearing, a picture is probably worth more than the usual exchange rate of a thousand words. But with this particular concept, I think a well designed, narrated animation can be worth a million words. Or perhaps it's just beyond words—making it priceless for learning. 

 Below is a great video that clearly explains the whole story of  auditory transduction—converting sound waves into hearing sensations in the ear.

 Before watching it, I recommend first reading the section of your textbook that covers ear anatomy and hearing, paying particular attention to the diagrams needed to understand the concept. That way, you'll get a lot more out of it!

Auditory Transduction

Three-dimensional Brain

Having trouble figuring out the shapes and locations of the various parts of the human brain?

Well, join the club!  Even experienced neuroscientists sometimes have to take a moment to wrap their brain around the structures of the brain.

Here's a great tool for helping you see what's what in the brain:

The 3-D Brain from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Besides being a fun way to "dissect" the brain and highlight specific structures, this interactive visualizer also helps you learn and review the names of structures and regions of the brain.

I recommend you add a bookmark for the 3-D Brain to your growing library of A&P resources.  This is one that you'll be using many times, even after you've finished your A&P course.

Thanks to Veneliza Salcedo for this tip!

Humanatomy

Having trouble learning all those facts about the many bones and muscles of the body?

I recently ran across a great set of resources that help you quickly learn the bones and muscles of the body.  A group called Humanatomy, led by teacher Paula Jaspar, has a YouTube channel loaded with short video clips that quickly help you through the parts of the human body's framework.

And they are putting the finishing touches on an iPad game that helps you learn anatomy in a really fun, multisensory way.  You can get the Humanatomy app when it's ready in a few weeks if you contribute to their Kickstarter campaign.

Learning experts tell us that we learn more efficiently (faster and deeper) if you use multiple senses, if you practice in many short spurts, and if you make a game of it.  The Humanatomy approach incorporates all of these ideas in their resources!

To check out their library of FREE videos go to The Humanatomy Channel on YouTube.

To check out their fun app for learning anatomy, go to the Humanatomy Kickstarter page.

You can learn even more by following the Humanatomy blog, where you can also sign up for their free newsletter with learning tips and follow them on Twitter.

Here are a couple of their videos to get you started:

Bones: Elbow Complex

Muscles: Sternocleidomastoid Muscle

Learning Tissues Bird by Bird

What?!  Bird by bird?

Yep—that's the best way to begin learning how to distinguish the various tissue types of the body.

The bird-by-bird approach to learning anatomy is based on two major concepts, described here.

Chunk the List

The first was described by author Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life:

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my  brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.'"

Wow—doesn't that sound just like the feeling you have when you are given a list of human tissues to learn in your A&P course?  With crazy names like nonkeratinized stratified squamous epithelium, specimens that look like the abstract art exhibit at the art museum, and an insanely short time frame to master them all, of course it feels overwhelming.

Really, that's the best way to tackle the tissues.  Just get started!  And take them one by one, rather than thinking about the whole long list of them facing you.  You'll find that by chunking the list this way, it's not so paralyzing.  It sounds overly simple—perhaps even a bit silly—but it really works!

Focus on Unique Characteristics

A while back, I wrote a post called Trouble with Tissues? in which I briefly described a method for learning tissues based on how birders learn how to tell one bird from another when out birdwatching:

The introduction to my Field Guide to the Body at the Lion Den website compares studying tissues to what birders do when they identify wildlife in the field. Take a look at that brief analogy, including examples of how to apply it to histology, for helpful tips on making this topic easier. If you're using any of my lab manuals in your A&P course, you can apply this technique directly by looking at the Landmark Characteristics boxes scattered throughout the tissue exercises.

To summarize this method, you simply look at what makes each tissue different from other tissues just as you would when learning the many different types of sparrows live in the state park:

• Field marks—physical characteristics that distinguish one type from another.  All sparrows are LBJs (little brown jobs), but each species has a unique characteristic such as a beak color or streak on the cheek that sets it apart from the others.  Likewise, each tissue type has one or more physical characteristics—such as cell shape or fiber type or cell arrangement—that make it stand out from all other similar tissues.


• Range—if I look out my window and see a penguin, I know I need my eyes examined.  Because I live in Missouri, where penguins live in only in zoos.  So I can identify birds in part by which birds live in or visit my region.  Bird guides list ranges for this reason—to help you figure out which bird the one in your yard could be.  If you learn the locations of tissues, that helps you figure out where to look for them.  For example, look for most epithelial tissues on surfaces, look for cardiac muscle in the heart.  If you are looking at a tissue sample from the arm, then don't expect that muscle tissue to be cardiac muscle—it's instead likely to be skeletal muscle tissue,


• Habitat—Besides knowing which region a bird is likely to be found, it also helps to know what kind of habitat it prefers.  Look for forest birds in the forest and look for shore birds, well, along the shore.  With tissues, if you know that if you are looking for irregular fibrous tissue, look under epithelium—there's always some there.


• Behavior—Behavior is function.  When identifying birds, it helps to know how they fly (do they soar like vultures or hover like hummingbirds?).  When identifying tissues, it helps to know their functions.  If you know that fibrous connective tissues are often supportive in function, that will help you find them.  If you know that smooth muscle tissue compresses the hollow part of hollow organs, you know where to find them—within the walls of hollow organs such as digestive organs.

Not Just for Tissues

This method also works well for learning bones and bone features, muscles of the body, nerves, digestive organs, and more—any of the "birds" of the body!

Want to know more?

Trouble with Tissues?

• Kevin Patton.  The A&P Student. 28 September 2010.
• Outlines tips for studying tissues in the A&P course.
• my-ap.us/14OoEVR

Field Guide to the Human Body

• Kevin Patton. Lion Den. Accessed 7 September 2014.
• From my study tips website, this page introduces the "birding" analogy to studying human structures.
• my-ap.us/1AokMsw

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

• Anne Lamott. Anchor. First published 1 January 1994.
• Great book.  Great author. That is all.
• my-ap.us/Yon5jT

Survival Guide for Anatomy & Physiology

• Kevin Patton. Elsevier. Oct 18, 2013.
• Tips and techniques for studying A&P, including tissues, mentions the birding analogy.
• my-ap.us/16aa5zg

Echocardiogram Visualizes Heart Function

One of the best ways to learn about the heart is to watch it work.  But how can you do that, considering that if you open up the thoracic cavity, then slice open the heart, you'd break it?

But biomedical science has shown us another way to see the parts of the heart and how they work.  It's called echocardiography.

It's a technique that uses the same technology as the sonograms you've seen of fetuses inside their mother's belly.  Basically, it bounces sound waves through the body and makes an image of whatever bounces back (an echo). But echocardiography is adapted specifically to the heart and its function.

Want to see echocardiography in action and better visualize heart function? Try watching this video.

Video source: my-ap.us/WnyEXi

Image credit: Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator

Powers of Ten

In A&P, many students have hard time wrapping their heads around the size of things.

For example, how many of us really have a good grasp of how small a cell really is, or a protein molecule within a cell, or an atom within the protein?  Or the relative size of tissues compared to individual cells—or compared to an organ?

And we are continually "zooming our focus" in and out among levels of organization—atoms and ions, molecules and crystals, organelles, cells, tissues, and organs.

Add to that the fact that the units of measurement used to describe the size of things are in the metric system (SI), which is based on powers of ten. That is, we use a measuring system based on units that very by a factor of ten—units are multiplied or divided by ten, then another ten, then by ten again.

Add to that the frequency of discussion of pH units, which on the surface seem to go up or down by single units—but in reality a change from one pH unit to the next is a change in hydrogen ion concentration by a factor of ten.

This nifty little video can help us wrap our heads around the concept of powers of ten.  It may help us in navigating the world of the human body. Click here to see the helpful material that accompanies the video.

 

Source: my-ap.us/1aFctxP

DNA image credit: 3Dscience

Learning bones & skeletal features

Wow, not only must I learn all the bones of the skeleton, but also a humongous list of bone features?!

Beginning the study of the skeleton can be intimidating, for a number of reasons.  Not the least of which is that the names of the bones and bone features seem to be very odd—sometimes almost unpronounceable.

There's a reason the names are so odd.  They're based on a foreign language!  They're all based on Latin, with a lot of Greek word parts mixed in there. Once you realize that you're learning a new language along with learning new structures, the task ahead will be clearer to you.  And hopefully, a  bit less intimidating.

It turns out that if you actually focus on the fact that these are terms from a foreign language and try to translate them, then learning skeletal anatomy is far easier—and takes far less time and effort—than if you ignore the meanings of bone names.

To help you get started on this road, I've produced a couple of very brief videos that outline a proven method to quickly and easily learn your entire assigned list of bones and bone features.  Watch them both to get the greatest benefit.

In the videos, I mention a couple of lists of translations (and pronunciations) that will help you engage the method I'm recommending.  Links to those lists are found below.

Bone Names Have Meaning - Part 1 - Get Started

Bone Names Have Meaning - Part 2 - Types of Bone Markings

Want to know more?

List of bone marking types

• Translation of each term
• Pronunciation of each term
• Brief description of each term
• my-ap.us/16PNh3K

List of bones and bone markings of the human skeleton

• Translation of each term
• Pronunciation of each term
• Use with your textbook or Survival Guide for A&P (below), which has a description of each structure
• my-ap.us/15zZYom

Field Guide to the Human Body:  Bone Names

• Part of the Lion Den Study Tips & Tools series for A&P students
• Includes the videos and lists mentioned above
• my-ap.us/13ihrPs

Survival Guide for Anatomy & Physiology

• Many time-saving, effort-saving, and frustration-saving tips and shortcuts
• my-ap.us/16aa5zg

Learning A&P Terminology

• Brief introduction to the scientific terminology used in A&P
• You might want to look at this FIRST if you haven't seen it yet
• Includes short, helpful videos
• my-ap.us/14PncUV

More Tips on Learning the Human Skeleton

• Additional blog posts (including this one) focusing on bones
• my-ap.us/JJEEMF

Legs and wings

What part of your body is the leg?

Wait . . . think carefully before you answer.

If you said the long limb below your waist (or equivalent), you'd be wrong!  Well, okay, it would be correct in everyday conversation.  But it is not anatomically correct.

In anatomical terms, the lower limb (lower extremity) is made of up of the thigh, leg, and foot.  Anatomically, the leg is only that section of the lower limb just below the knee.

The same sort of thing happens with the arm.  In anatomy, the entire upper limb (upper extremity) is not the arm.  Only the section above the elbow is the arm.  The section just below the elbow is the forearm.

One way to help you remember this is think of pieces of chicken.  I realize that not everyone is a meat eater. But those who eat chicken know that it's often served in pieces.  A chicken leg is not the entire lower limb--there's another piece just proximal to the leg: the thigh.  Remember that, and it may be easier to keep the distinction straight in human anatomy.

Likewise, one can think of the two types of pieces often served in an order of chicken wings.  The "drumette," which looks like a mini drumstick, is the arm.  The "flat" or "wingette" is the forearm.

Study Blue

As stated recently, the best way to learn anything is . . .

Practice.

Practice.

Practice.

And one of the easiest and fastest ways to practice learning the basic facts and terminology of A&P is to use flash cards.

One great way of using flash cards is to use an online platform for making, studying, and sharing flash cards.

Study Blue is one of the more popular online flashcard tools.


Here's a brief video introducing the philosophy behind Study Blue

With Study Blue you can can create flash cards on your device based on your course needs, then use their automated system to review them.  You can also create custom study guides and quizzes based on those flash cards.

This brief video Tap. Snap. Speak, shows how simple it is to make a flash card with Study Blue.

Now imagine yourself in A&P lab with a skull.  Or a model of the torso.  Point to a structure, snap a photo and say, "mastoid process." and you've got a great flash card for studying!

Teachers can assemble sets of flashcards with Study Blue  then share them with students.  Of course, students can share with their classmates in study groups.  For example, in your study group you may assign each person a set of flashcards to make based on your course material.  By sharing each of these with the whole study group, everyone now has a whole library of flash cards based on the week's study topics.

Check out Study Blue at

Study Blue

For more advice on making and using flash cards effectively for A&P check out the collection of articles at

Flash Cards

Flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

Having trouble visualizing the ventricles and canals that contain CSF (cerebrospinal fluid)?   Or the pathway of circulation of the CSF?

Here's a brief animated video that walks you through it all in a simple, straightforward way.

The video uses eponyms and other terminology you may not be using in your course, so here are some translations:

• ependymal cavity = ventricle
• foramina of Munro = interventricular foramina
• aqueduct of Sylvius = cerebral aqueduct (aqueduct of midbrain)
• foramen of Magendie = median foramen or median aperture (of fourth ventricle)
• granulations of Pacchioni = arachnoid villi or arachnoid granulations

Click on the image above for a freaky animated MRI (magnetic resonance image) showing the pulsing of the CSF with the hearbeat in aa person with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Image (c) Nevit Dilmen.

For more on differences in terminology, check out my video: my-ap.us/TmWmiL

Master the trapezius

One of the most recognizable muscles of the human body is also sometimes the hardest to figure out.  I'm talking about the trapezius muscle.   How can it both elevate the shoulder and depress it?  And also produce so many other diverse movements?

The folks at Visible Body have offered a FREE helper to explore the trapezius.  It called the Trapezius Digital Kit and it provides both a downloadable mini eBook and a downloadable video.

Check out the free "digital kit" here:

my-ap.us/UJd1IT

Also, try out this video:

Skull puzzle

The folks at Visible Body are offering a FREE mini eBook that clearly illustrates and summarizes the 22 bones of the skull. 

This handy little gem will help you get started studying the bones of skull and provide a valuable addition to your set of  study resources.  The three dimensional views of the skull will help give you a deeper understanding of the structure of the skull.

It also gives you an introduction to Visible Body's computer-based anatomy study tools.

Check it out at my-ap.us/UXwSHb

Planes of the body

In a previous post, I addressed that initial struggle with anatomical terminology when beginning a course in anatomy & physiology.  In this post, I'll pick up with another early--but essential--set of concepts: planes of the body.

As with any concept of A&P, one shortcut to understanding is to connect the concept to something simple that you already know about.  Let's see how that could work with anatomical body planes.

For planes of the body, think of them as ways you could slice the body if you had a big giant saw like illusionists use to saw people in half.

If you saw a person so that there is a top part and bottom part of their body, then you’ve cut along a TRANSVERSE or HORIZONTAL plane.  Either term can be used. They both mean the same thing.  It doesn’t have to be equal top and bottom halves . . . ANY separation of top and bottom is a cut along a transverse plane.

If you saw a person into left and right pieces, you are sawing along a SAGITTAL plane.  The word sagittal literally means “relating to an arrow” used in archery.  So imagine shooting an arrow into an apple that is sitting on top of my head . . . and then imagine the apple falling apart into a left and right piece as the arrow slices through it.  That’s a sagittal cut . . . a cut along a sagittal plane.

If the sagittal plane is exactly in the middle, dividing the body along its midline into equal left and right halves, we call that plane a MIDSAGITTAL plane.  If instead the plane is off to one side or another, splitting the body into unequal pieces, it’s simply called a SAGITTAL plan.

If you saw a person into front and back pieces, you are cutting along a FRONTAL plane or CORONAL plane. 

Again, seeing this visually is a good idea. 

• First, study the images of body planes in your A&P textbook and lab manual. If you are using one of my textbooks or manuals, you can find a handy diagram  of the planes of the body just inside the front or back cover.    By looking at many different diagrams, you'll get a better understanding of the essential concept of body planes . . . as well as plenty of practice.
• Try constructing a three-dimensional "paper doll" model that resembles the diagram shown here.  Or any kind of simple, hands-on model.  Such activities may seem like a childish project, but it engages many parts of your brain and thus strengthens your learning . . . and your memory.
• Here's a great YouTube video outlining the concept of body planes:
  



• You may find this FREE mini-course to be helpful.  It's called simply Anatomical Directions and it's provided as a free service from Insight Medical Academy. It requires a free registration to use the course, so be sure to register before trying to access the course.  Here's a brief video explaining how the free course works.
  
  
  

  
  
   

Anatomical directions

When starting out in A&P, it's important to get a good grasp of how we talk about directions in the human body.  That's so that we can get down to business and really start describing human structures.  Describing them in a way that is accurate enough to be really clear on where those structures are in the body.

The problem is that most of us feel overwhelmed when a long list of rather foreign terms and concepts seem to suddently fall on top of us and make it hard to breathe!

A good approach is to stay calm and look for ways to connect these ideas to simple concepts that are already familiar to us. Following are some examples to get a good start.

Think of the directions of the body as you would ordinary directions like UP, DOWN, FORWARD, BACKWARD, etc.:

• Superior UP
• Inferior DOWN

• Anterior FORWARD
• Posterior BACKWARD

• Lateral TOWARD THE SIDE
• Medial TOWARD THE MIDDLE

• Proximal NEAR THE BEGINNING
• Distal AWAY FROM THE BEGINNING

Notice that the directions above are grouped into opposite pairs.  This is a good way to think of them . . . as pairs of opposites.

Now try the same with these directions:

• (Anatomical) Left
• (Anatomical) Right

• Dorsal
• Ventral

• Cortical
• Medullary

Now look at the diagrams showing anatomical directions in your A&P textbook and lab manual.  If you are using one of my textbooks or manuals , you can find a handy diagram along with a list of direction terms just inside the front or back cover.  My books and manuals also use a an anatomical compass rosette in every illustration, pointing you in the right direction just like the compass rosette found on any ordinary map.

Then try to find similar diagrams by doing an internet image search for "anatomical directions." The more diagrams you look at, the more it will become clear how the directions are used.


Next, try searching for some YouTube videos that explain the anatomical directions of the body.  Here’s a really good one:  

But this is just the beginning.  To truly understand them . . . and to be able to recall them quickly and easily as you must during your A&P course . . . you need to PRACTICE using them.  How you ask?  Aha! I have some strategies that are both fun and effective:

• Start using them in every conversation.  Explain to your friends or family that the remote is superior to to the television screen but you are about to move it to a position inferior to the screen.  Explain that your pocket is on the lateral side of your jeans.   "Hey look, my shoelaces are dorsal!"  Yes, it's goofy.  But that's part of what makes it effective.  And your friends and family will love helping you study.  Really. The important thing is to do it frequently and throughout  each day . . . until you have reached total mastery.
  
• Label your body.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Remember when you were a little kid and you labeled one shoe "left" and one shoe "right" so you could learn your left from your right?  What?! You didn't do that?   Well, if you had then you'd have learned that lesson far more quickly.  Well, here's your chance!  Pin "proximal" and "distal" labels on your sleeve.  Pin a "superior" label on your hat.  Then add an "anterior" label to the front of your hat and a "posterior" label on the back.  Yes, another goofy strategy.  But it's one that works, while also letting others join in the silliness.
  
• An extra advantage of this strategy is that when folks see the labels and ask about them, you will be reminded to practice them.  "Oh yeah, I forgot about those labels.  Here, let me explain them to you."  Both the reminder and your explanation of each one will continue to give you the practice you need to master your anatomical directions.
  
• Use flash cards to practice anatomical directions.  If you're not already familiar with the many ways to use flash cards to quickly and thoroughly learn anatomical concepts and terminology, check out my many posts describing this method. 

 In an upcoming post, I'll follow up with some strategies for learning the planes of the body.

10 tips for studying the skeleton

One of the first major challenges in learning A&P is learning all the bones and bone features of the human skeleton.  Many students have not had much experience in memorizing physical structures to be identified by sight.

This video from my friend Paul Krieger is a good place to start.  It summarizes some of the basic shortcuts and tips that will help you learn the human skeleton . . . tips that will help you learn any anatomical structures of the human body.




Here are some additional links related to Professor Krieger's "10 tips"

• Flashcards
• Anatomical terminology
• Skeleton tips

Here's another resource from Professor Krieger that my own students find to be very helpful in learning the human skeleton as well as other concepts of A&P

A Visual Analogy Guide to
Human Anatomy & Physiology

Learn your anatomical directions!

As you begin studying the structure and function of the human body, you'll find that you need to be thoroughly familiar with the terminology used in anatomy to describe directions and orientation.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but it's a necessary step in learning everything else in anatomy.  It's like knowing north from south and east from west when beginning a course in geography.

Extra time and effort spent to learn anatomical directions and orientation at the beginning of the course will make most of the next semester or two . . . and beyond into other courses and your career . . . go way more smoothly.  Really.  It's hard to see that now, I know.  But trust me!

Besides your learning in the lab and lecture course, and working through your textbook and lab manual, you may find this FREE mini-course to be helpful.  It's called simply Anatomical Directions and it's provided as a free service from Insight Medical Academy. It requires a free registration to use the course, so be sure to register before trying to access the course.  Here's a brief video explaining how the free course works.

FREE body browser

I recently saw a story about one of the newest Google Labs creation: Body Browser.  I immediately thought of how helpful this will be for A&P students.


The Body Browser is a FREE online tool that you can use to explore the anatomy of the human body in a "virtual dissection" format.  Using the familiar Google Maps navigation tools, you can . . .

• Peel (or fade) away layers of the body . . . removing the skin, then muscles, then bones, to reveal the internal organs
  
  
• Select systems (skeletal, muscular, nervous, cardiovascular) to view
  
  
• Click on any structure to show its label
  
  
• Type the name of any structure in the search box to find it in the body
  
  
• Tilt, zoom, turn the body to a variety of positions to see organs in more views that usually available in a textbook, atlas, or chart

The Body Browser runs inside any WebGL-enabled browser, meaning that you don't have to worry about having the latest Flash or Java plugins installed.

I think Body Browser a is a great FREE tool for A&P students to have access to an online model of the human body that can be used for a beginning study of anatomy.  Because it allows the user to type in the names of organs for which they are looking, you can be certain it will work well with what you need to know for your course.

There are a few minor limitations of the Body Browser:

• The only available specimen is female (that is, there is no male specimen available to complement the female specimen)
  
  
• The specimen is partially clothed.  Although one can see some of the underlying surface structures as the "skin" layer fades back, it's not the same as seeing these structures clearly.  An odd feature that makes certain regions of the body "off limits." (I've seen some hacks to fix this, but none of them work for me using the Chrome browser)
  
  
• Some of the organs are roughly rendered, so it's not as detailed (at least in some areas) as you may like to see
  
  
• Only a few systems can be shown in entirety.  Some useful system views that are missing are the lymphatic system and the respiratory system
  
  
• You cannot select or hide individual organs for display
   
• I could find no documentation or even a help button (pretty typical of the experimental Google Labs resources)

Even with some minor limitations, Body Browser is still a fantastic learning and study tool.  As an A&P student, you might use Body Browser as . . .

• a study tool during a solo or study group session to demonstrate the location and structure of specific organs
  
  
• you could use it live or you could record a session with Jing or similar recording tool and use the pre-recorded exploration to review or to share with others in your study group or class
  
  
• you can send the URL of a specific view (perhaps with a label) to a student or group of students or post it to Facebook, Twitter, or a class website
  
  
• alternative lab model to use along with physical models in the lab
  
  
• use it as a reference side by side with your lab manual and your laboratory model
  
  
• use it in place of a laboratory model when studying at home or away from the lab
  
• a way to create images for
  
• your class notes
  
• concept maps
  
• study guides and review sheets
  
• class presentations, lab reports, term papers, and other assignments

Do you have some other ideas for using Body Browser in an undergraduate A&P course?  Just use the comment feature and share your ideas with us!

Check out this video to see a demo of the currently available features of Body Browser