Concept Mapping

In a previous post I outlined some of the benefits of using concept maps.  Also known as mind maps, they are simply charts that sketch out how you understand a particular concept.  This helps you map out for yourself how the pieces of a complex topic relate to one another . . .and perhaps also how they relate to other concepts.

You've seen concept maps before.  They are scattered throughout your A&P textbook.  They can take the form of flow charts, tables, circle diagrams, sketches, and so on.  When you make your own concept map, you help yourself to learn how it all fits together.

If you struggle with putting together a concept map, that's great!  That means that you've identified a specific hole in your understanding.  You can't complete a concept map unless you understand where to place all the bits into the picture, right?  Once you stumble, you know what parts of your understanding are weak.  And that means you know what sections of the textbook you need to explore further.  Or what questions you need to ask your study group, your professor, or your tutor.

When you've finished the concept map, you've learned quite a bit.  Your understanding of the concept is deeper.

And the finished concept map serves as a handy reference for future study and review.  If you keep it for the long term, which I recommend, it becomes part of your own personal encyclopedia that never stops growing.  And which, I hope, you continue to update as your learning expands.

I recently ran across a FREE online tool that creates concepts maps in a simple chart style.  It's called Text2MindMap.com and it's really easy to use.  You just cut and paste (or type in) and outline of a concept and the tool will automatically generate a concept map! 

You can then tweak the layout, the levels, the colors, the fonts, etc.   Then with a single click you can save your concept map as a graphics file.  You then have the option of printing out your concept map or sharing it with a friend or embedding it in your class notes.

Want to know more about concept mapping?  Visit my page on Concept Maps in the Lion Den.

Trouble with tissues?

I don't think I've ever met a person who could identify tissues of the body on sight on their first day of trying. And yet many A&P students get frustrated just because they can't "get it" after only one day of trying. Identifying tissue types by sight is difficult for everyone, at first—for  several reasons.

First, each example is unique. No two examples look exactly alike, just like no two fingerprints look exactly alike.So you have to learn to look for patterns. And you can't do that until you've looked at a lot of examples. And that takes time—and a lot of practice.

Second, not all examples are stained in exactly the same way. Even when the same general type of staining is used, a lot depends on the quality of the sample, the quality of the stain used, and how well the preparer did their job. So again, you have to look for patterns. For example, stratified squamous epithelium can be found in wildly different colors, depending upon which type of staining technique is used. But no matter what the color, the pattern of flattened cells near the free edge, progressing to cuboidal and perhaps even column-shaped cells further away from the free edge, will still be present.

Third, when you look for patterns you have to remember what part of the pattern is important. You also have to remember that many patterns are very similar, so you have to remember how to tell them apart. For example, dense fibrous connective tissue can look a lot like fibrocartilage at first glance. You have to learn to look for the little white halos around the cells in fibrocartilage that tell you that the cells are within lacunae (spaces).

Oh, did I mention that practice, practice, practice is important?

Tissue identification really isn't as hard as it first seems. It really is mainly just a matter of putting the time into practicing.

Here are some tips for getting the most practice time in during the short time you have studied tissues:

• Spend as much time in the lab as possible. If there are open lab times available, by all means take advantage of it.
  
  
• If there is a learning center available with tissue specimens spend as much time as you can with them.
  
  
• Use the examples published in your textbook and lab manual, or any other resource (such as a Brief Atlas of the Body),to practice identifying tissues. Cover up the labels and see if you can identify them. Make a photocopy of the images, cutaway or cover-up the labels, and test yourself.
  
  
• Ask your instructor for other sources of practice images. Sometimes, someone will have taken photographs of the specimens used in your class. This is a good resource for practicing.
  
  
• There are a lot of online resources for practicing tissue identification. Here are a few of my favorites – you can find many more by searching the web using key terms such as "tissues," "histology," and similar terms.
  
  
• LUMEN
  [Loyola University's famous histology site; includes lessons on histology]
  
  
• Blue Histology
  [Histology site at School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia]
  
  
• Dr. Stephen Larsen's Channel (YouTube)
  [Dr. Larsen walks you through a variety of specimens as they are seen under the microscope.]
  
  
• The A&P Professor Free Image Library
  [My site for A&P teachers includes links to free images of tissues that you can use to practice histology.]
  
  
• Use flash cards (study cards) with photocopies of tissue specimens or printouts of digital images. See my recent blog article for a video on how to use flash cards in this manner.  Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Study and Review Cards includes some histology cards along with all other topics in A&P.
  
  
• Try to study a little bit several times each day, rather than a few long sessions several days apart. Constant practice is what works best.

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.

Using flash cards

Flash cards are just for kids, right?  Wrong.

Flash cards, also known as study cards, are one of the most useful strategies you can use in studying human anatomy & physiology.

Here's a brief video that offers some practical tips for using study cards to reduce your study time and get a solid foundation in learning any topic.  This video also includes some surprising advanced techniques that show how to use flash cards to also learn higher-level thinking in any topic of A&P . . . or any other subject.

The video includes

• A clear explanation of the Leitner system, plus my own "easy to use" adaptation of the Leitner system
• Using color codes and symbols
• How to use cards to learn processes and ordered structures
• How to use cards to build concept maps (mind maps).

You can find many other tips on using flash cards at the newly updated page New Terms at http://lionden.com/new_terms.htm and in previous articles in The A&P Student blog.

Looking for packaged study cards that you can use for your A&P course? 
Try Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Study and Review Cards

Whack a Bone!

Want a fun and FREE way to get started in learning anatomy?  Try the games at Anatomy Arcade.
These arcade-style games are a wacky way to quickly pickup the the basics of human anatomy before you dive into the details.  Or should I say "whacky?" . . . because one of my favorites is Whack a Bone (a parody of the famous Whack a Mole arcade game).

In Whack a Bone, you quickly learn the names and locations of the major bones of the skeleton, one region at a time.  Even for an old pro like me, I found the Whack a Bone games to be fun.  The games include won't help you learn any of the foramina of the skull or the other detailed features and regions of each individual bone.  But they will help you get started by quickly learning the bone names and their shapes and locations and relationships to other bones in a painless and fun way.

Some of the other games found at Anatomy Arcade are

• Poke a Muscle
• Match a Brain
• Digestive Jigsaw
• Eye Jigsaw
• Match a Body System

All these games are meant for learning the body's structure at a very elementary level . . . exactly where all A&P students need to start.  You cannot get to the details until you have learned the basics.

Let me know what you think about the Anatomy Arcade games!  (post a comment here)

Selling your textbook?

I hope I didn't catch you too late!  It's time for my annual warning to NOT sell your textbook.

This is the time of year when many A&P students think about selling their textbook back to the bookstore or textbook co-op.  Some sell them directly to other students on campus or through an online platform.  DON'T DO IT!

Why not?  Because you still need it!

Just because your A&P course is over, your use of your A&P textbook is far from over.  Here are just a few of the many reasons you should keep your A&P materials, including the textbook:

• You'll need to review your A&P at the start of nearly every topic in your professional / clinical courses.  Many nursing, medical, and allied health textbooks include a brief review of A&P . . . but you'll do better with a quick skim of your fully illustrated A&P textbook.
  
  
• Your A&P textbook will get you out of a jam.  There will be occasional moments when you "blank out" on some essential bit of A&P . . . something you need to "get it" in a later course.  Your trusty A&P textbook will come to your rescue by providing refreshing your understanding of that tricky concept . . . in a way that is already familiar and comfortable for you.
  
  
• You need to start a professional library.  So many health professionals begin their careers regretting that they sold off many of the essential reference tools they need to get started in a successful professional career.  Your A&P textbook is the core around which you should begin building your professional library of resources. 
  
  
• When you're out there in the "real world" you'll need some tools to help you cope with new situations.  It's a great comfort to have your A&P book there to help you review basic concepts that you haven't run across in a while.  When you're pulled to a different department, start a job in a new specialty, or struggle through a professional continuing education course, you'll find your old A&P book is a great place to dig out all those things you know you know . . . but with which you need some brushing up.
  

I can't tell you how many times I've bumped into former students of mine who ask me, "hey, you don't happen to have an old A&P book laying around your office I could have?" 

I just smile and reply, "you sold off yours after our course ended, didn't you?" 

The sheepish reply then comes, "yeah, I know you told us to hold on to it but I didn't think I'd really need it.  Now I REALLY need it to help me in my nursing course!"

[FYI, we A&P professors really do NOT have a pile of old A&P books laying around to give away.]

Considering that you rarely get much of a return on selling a used textbook, it really isn't much of a hardship to keep your A&P textbook.  You'll be really glad that you did!

Also see my Study Tip Your Professional Library in the Lion Den.

Translating muscle names

When you first face that long list of names of muscle that you need to learn in A&P, you may be taken aback by the odd names of the major human muscles.  Well, that and the sheer number of muscles you'll be tested on!

But what makes those muscle names so odd . . . the fact that they are Latin phrases . . . can be used as a shortcut to help you identify those muscles!

For example, the muscle name latissimus dorsi tells you exactly where to find this muscle.  Latissimus means "way over to the side" and dorsi means "back."   So the phrase latissimus dorsi muscle means "back muscle way over to the side."  This not only tells you exactly where the muscle is . . . once you learn the meaning of the name, you have a way to remember the muscle.

Check out this video for a clearer idea of this strategy.

Then check out this article in my Lion Den Study Tips & Tools . . . Muscle Names.

This article also has more video to help you learn the meaning of muscle names AND a FREE downloadable, printable list of muscle names and meanings (and pronunciations).

For a great resource in learning about muscles, perhaps to add to your growing professional library, check out the book The Muscular System Manual: The Skeletal Muscles of the Human Body

Committing Time to A&P

The student handbook at our college recommends that students spend about 2 hours of study time outside of class for every hour in class (including lab).  I tell my students that's the average . . . and A&P is an above average course . . . so count on spending even more time studying outside of class.

But what to do about time commitments to family, friends, hobbies, and jobs?  Depending on your life situation, these could also be very demanding of your time and attention.

In my book Survival Guide For Anatomy And Physiology: Tips, Techniques And Shortcuts I outline a few strategies that may help you.  Here are some of those tips . . . and few others:

• Share your study time with others.  If you have kids, then do your sketching and coloring and concept mapping side-by-side as you kids do their homework.  Kids will be more motivated to do their homework when they see mommy or daddy doing homework.  And it brings them more into what you are doing, giving them an inside peek at what is taking up so much of your time these days. You can do this with your spouse or friends, too, even if they're not in your A&P class . . . you can work on A&P while they work on their homework (or their sewing or their stamp collection).
  
  
• Set aside alone time.  Some of your study time probably needs to be free of the distractions of others around you.  So set aside time each week to work alone.  This may mean getting child care or elder care for part of the week.  But such a sacrifice may be worth it if it helps you succeed and reach your goals.
  
  
• Get your significant others on board.  I recommend that before starting A&P (or early in your A&P adventure) you have a heart to heart chat with your friends, your family, your coworkers, or anyone else who will be impacted by the time and attention you'll need to be giving to your studies.  Try to make them a part of helping you achieve your goals.  Ask them what they are willing to do to help you.  It could be that they promise not to pester you for more time or to refrain from pushing into giving up your study night to go out and party.  It could be that they offer to take on some of your chores or other commitments to give you more time for your study.  If you just start taking time from friends or family, without it being clear to them why, then you risk them becoming resentful.  By making them a part of the process of planning your study strategy, they will feel more a part of your road to success . . . a feeling that will bring you all closer together.
  
  
• Make sure you have time just for family and friends.  Although you need to set aside significant time for your studies, you also need time for the rest of your life.  So as steadfast as you are about protecting your study time, be just as steadfast protecting your friend and family time.  When your loved ones know that they're important and will have their time with you, too, they won't feel so bad about losing you to your studies.
  
  
• Stay organized.  Different folks have different styles of organizing themselves and their tasks.  But you have to do something to organize your studies of A&P . . . there's just so much to do and to keep track of and to keep up with.  Don't fool yourself into thinking that you can just "wing it."  Perhaps you did that in high school or in other college courses.  But only the very rare person can do that in A&P successfully.  So even if you never done it before, get a calendar and plan out what you need to be doing and when.  Regularly assess your progress and adjust your schedule accordingly.
  
  
• Know why you're doing this.  One of my most successful students reminded me recently after a help session, "Those were great tips, Kevin, but all you really need is a 'can do' attitude."   That's absolutely right.  If you start with a winning attitude, and stay focused on the reason why you need to know the structure and function of the body so thoroughly, it makes all the time and effort enjoyable.  You'll learn more useful information and skills in your A&P course than any other college course.  Really.  Even stuff that will help you in "real life."  So why not make the most of it? 

Want to know more?  Get new tips from The A&P Student as soon as they are published by subscribing to the FREE newsletter.

And don't forget to submit your own tips to share with other A&P students!

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bofh/ / CC BY 2.0

Scheduling strategies

Did you know that your class schedule can play a big role in your success in your anatomy and physiology course?  Not a lot of students realize that you need a good scheduling strategy to maximize your learning in A&P.

Here are some strategies that many students have found useful:

• Avoid short classes.  OK, you may not have a choice in this . . . but if you do, then avoid classes that meet for 50-minute sessions.  More and more schools are scheduling A&P "lecture" classes for longer class periods, meeting twice a week (rather than three times a week).  Why?
  
  
• Because most students feel that they "just get into it" and the class is over. 
  
  
• Partly, 50-minute classes are too short because more faculty are incorporating new techniques in "active learning" and other methods to enhance the classroom experience of students.  Such techniques, when used effectively, simply do not fit well into a short class period. 
  
  
• Another reason is that when professors try to build up to the higher-level concepts, they cannot accomplish it within a short time frame . . . and waiting until the next class period will lose the threads needing to be pulled together.  You'll understand the lecture/discussion better in longer class periods.
  
  
• Avoid "stacking" your classes all on two or three days.  A lot of students believe that they are being efficient when they try to stack their entire full-time course load into 2 or 3 days of the week . . . M/W/F only or T/Th only, for example.  That may sound like a good idea, but it's usually not.  Why? 
  
  
• First, your brain (and your butt) may not be able to handle hour upon hour of classroom activities effectively.  It is not efficient if you cannot take in all that new learning all in one long session.  Not only might your learning suffer, but you'll begin to dread coming to school . . . and eventually you'll "turn off" your motivation to be successful in learning. 
  
  
• Besides giving your brain (and butt) a rest, spreading out your class days allows you to build in breaks in your day that allow other kinds of learning activities.  So many of my students struggle to get things done on campus that they need to do . . . because they forgot to build in some "on campus time" for themselves.  For example:
  
  
• Group study time
• Post-lecture and post-lab student gatherings to review content
• Lab practice (going over models, etc, in the open lab or learning center)
• Tutoring in the learning center
• Library work
• Office visits with professors and advisors
  
• Campus workshops (for example, student success workshops)
  
• Eating right
  
• Campus life (just hanging out and having fun . . . an important part of college)
  
  
• Find the right instructor.  If you have a choice, you may want to do some research so you can pick the instructor that is the best fit for your learning style.  However, this can be very tricky.  How do you really know what an instructor is like?
  
  
• Never go on word of just one or two students, because they may be at one or the other extreme in their perspective.  Get a LOT of input if you can. 
  
  
• And I suggest that you stay away from those online rating sites . . . they often preferentially attract the extremes, as well. 
  
  
• The best advice is to interview each instructor.  Ask them what approach they take, how they address your individual learning style, what their strengths and weaknesses are.  You wouldn't choose a contractor or employee without talking to them first and getting references . . .so why treat your education any differently?
  

Of course, there will be limitations in your choices . . . but when given a choice, it's best to choose wisely.

Exam strategies

Exam time is nearly here!  Do you have some personal exam strategies to implement before, during, and after the exam?

Even if you do have some tried and true strategies of your own, you may benefit from hearing about what I've seen work well in A&P courses. 

First, I have a brief video presentation called . . . wait for it . . . Exam Strategies that runs down the basic strategies.

Then I have some additional tips in previous blog posts: 

Exams are coming!
[What do in advance of exam day . . . how to get ready for the "big day."]

Test taking strategies and  Exam time!
[What to do on exam day . . . and during the exam.]

Learn from your mistakes!
[A video presentation on how to analyze your previous tests.]

Do you have some of your own tips to share?
Click the comment button and let's hear them!

Build your own body!

I recently came across a website where you can build your own body.  It's called Anatomography and it's really fun.

Using the online editor at Anatomography you start out with a complete skeleton.  You can adjust the opacity (how transparent the bones are) or the color of your skeleton . . . or delete it if you like.  Oh, and you can change the background color if you like.

You then add organs from a library of pre-drawn organs.  Any organs you like. Make each one a different color or perhaps color-code them by system.  If you want to remove organs you've added, that's easy.

At any point, you can rotate or tip your body to the desired perspective. Like the image shown here, where I included the spleen (red) and tilted the body so you can see its position easily.

You can save your image to a file or the program will provide you with a URL where the image is located so that you can share it with your friends . . . or the whole class.  (You could even share it with your professor!)

You can also get a URL that links to your image within the editor, so that others can start with your image then add to it or change it in other ways.  This could be great for a study group to share the building of a system . . . or a whole body.

Besides being a fun toy to play with, this could really help you understand the anatomy of the human body by building and unbuilding it . . . rotating it around to different angles . . . highlighting different areas with different colors . . . making organs translucent so you can see through them to nearby organs . . . and more.

It's also a great tool to produce images for your flash cards, your concept maps, your class notes, PowerPoint slides,  and other study tools.

Because your textbook and lab manual cannot possibly illustrate every organ at every possible angle, the images you produce with Anatomography can help you visualize organs that you otherwise would have a hard time visualizing.

The program isn't perfect.  For example, the only skeletal muscle in the available library is the diaphragm.  But for other systems, the library is fairly complete.

What uses can you think of for Anatomography?

Learn from your mistakes!

OK, you know you're supposed to "go over" your test or exam after its over. But HOW do you do that . . . WHY should you do that . . . and WHAT SHOULD YOU BE GETTING OUT OF IT?

The reason you should do it is so that you can learn from your mistakes. Not only will you need those concepts you missed when you take the final exam, you'll need them to understand the rest of the course.

Besides, you're going to have to identify and fix any problems with your test-taking skills.

If you just casually scan your test, then you may not get much out of it. You need to take a more organized, focused approach.

Here's a brief video running down how this works.



Want a FREE sample Test Analysis Chart?  More information on how to analyze your test?  Then go to lionden.com/testreview.htm

A skull a day?

Well with a certain holiday coming up soon, it's probably a good time to share one of my favorite blogs with you . . . a crazy, wonderful blog called SKULL-A-DAY that you should visit.
The project started out when this guy named Noah Scalin made a paper skull and posted it, then kept on making skulls in various media and in different forms every day for a year.

Then folks just kept adding to it and, well, now it's a pretty big project.  The one shown here is one of my favorites . . . a skull carved from a watermelon! There's even a book version now! The book is called SKULLS of course.

As many of you A&P students are skull fans by now, or ought to be, I thought you might like to see all those skulls.


For Facebook users, there's an application called Send-A-Skull that allows you to send skulls to your friends.

Help with learning the skeleton

My students are now struggling with learning all those darn bone markings in lab.  Last week, I shared one of their suggestions . . . the bone dance from the Hannah Montana TV series.

They also have found it useful to learn the naming system for bone markings first, before trying to even find the specific markings on the skeleton.  This method for understanding the conceptual framework before you begin learning a list of structures is more fully explained in my Survival Guide For Anatomy And Physiology: Tips, Techniques And Shortcuts.

In the Survival Guide, I explain how learning bone markings is like learning geography.  Before you can find specific calderas on a map, you have to know what a caldera is.  Should you be looking for a stream?  A mountain?  A valley?  Once you know a caldera is a volcanic mountain that has collapsed for form a big crater, it's easy to find any caldera assigned to you on a map.  You won't waste your time and effort looking at every feature . . . just the big craters.  And knowing what a caldera is, you'll remember what it looks like as you learn the name.

Thus, if you learn that a condyle is a rounded bump where a bone articulates (joins) with another bone, it's easy to find and remember all the condyles in the skeleton.  If you know that a foramen is hole, then finding them (and remembering them) is now that much easier.

When we compare learning anatomy to learning geography, we are using an analogy.  Such analogies are comparisons that help us learn. 

Something my students have found to be really, really helpful in finding good analogies for learning the bone markings is the Visual Analogy Guide series.  This series has been used by my students for a couple of years now and my students love them.

Created by my friend Paul Krieger at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), the Visual Analogy Guides really meet the students where they are at to help them master some of those little tricks for learning the core concepts of an A&P course.

Using his considerable skills as an illustrator and his great talent as a teacher, Paul has put together some great tools that help students focus their study time by using visual and kinesthetic processes to help them learn "the hard parts" of A&P.

Check out his video, in which he explains how the Visual Analogy Guides work.

100 Best Web Tools for Science Students

I recently became aware of a new website that includes a handy list of the 100 Best Web Tools for Science Students. It includes virtual laboratories and experiments, explorations and web quests, basic foundations and principles, research and collaboration sites, modeling and mapping tools, plus links to search engines and databases.

Although the list includes resources covering a variety of science topics, several could be very useful to A&P students. Just a few examples:

1. Virtual Labs at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute A free tool that enables students to take on the role of scientist, technician, doctor, and immunologist. They participate in labs on topics related to cardiology, immunology, and bacterial identification.

57. Note Mesh A web 2.0 app that allows college students in the same science classes to share notes online using a wiki set-up.

73. Flashcard Exchange Print flashcards, create flashcards and study science topics online with this tool, the world’s largest flashcard library.

86. Virtual Cell A simulation of the look and feel of moving through an actual cell or cellular component. Students are encouraged to play the role of a biologist and examine cellular organelles, conduct experiments and form conclusions.

But be careful! There are a lot fun links, like virtual field trips to the plains of Africa, that might distract you from studying A&P. Well, OK, it's a good thing to have a little fun, too.

Bone song and dance

You can't dance without your skeleton, right? But can you sing and dance about the skeleton? Well, the TV character Hannah Montana thought so when she needed to learn the bones for her A&P class.

As I've mentioned before silly songs are a great learning tool!
(see Pinky & the Brain and Pump your blood)

You'll want to see the video showing the song and dance.




Then you'll want to see the video that helps you learn the lyrics.

Study Cards

You may be interested in a new study tool that has just become available to anatomy and physiology students . . . Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Study and Review Cards.

This boxed set of full-color study cards was assembled by my good friend Dan Matusiak, who is an excellent teacher of A&P. Using some the of amazing new art recently commissioned by Mosby (Elsevier Publishing), Dan has created a whole toolbox of helpful study cards to help you learn your A&P . . . then help you to quickly review it later.

There are 329 cards divided into 20 sections with handy color-coded sections to help you locate topics easily. Their 4 inch by 5.5 inch size means that they'll also stack easily with any 4 x 6 index cards that you may already be using to study A&P.

Additional features include:

• This set introduces the user to the Leitner method, a time-tested strategy to improve retention and streamline study time through flash cards.


• More than 200 of the cards feature a detailed A&P illustrations on the front, while the back identifies the anatomic structures or physiologic processes with numbered labels.


• The set features hundreds of study questions with answers to reinforce core content.


• Compact and convenient size makes it easy to study the cards wherever you choose.

Whether your breezing through A&P, or struggling to survive, this learning tool is worth checking out!

Learning anatomic structures

When you first face human anatomy in the lab course, it can seem overwhelming. All those parts. And parts of parts! Yikes!

Many inexperienced students feel that their objectives consist entirely of memorization. Often, they feel that memorizing the particular models, specimens, and diagrams available to them in the lab course are the beginning and end of the process facing them.

That's wrong on several counts.

First, what good is taking this course, if you are simply going to memorize things that will be useless to you outside of this particular course . . . when you'll face other specimens, perhaps even real human bodies?

Second, there is a far easier way to learn your anatomy—even a long list of required structures—than merely memorizing them. If you first construct a conceptual framework, before learning all those parts, your learning will be faster, easier, and more accurate. AND you'll be more likely to hold on to that information (and recall it when you need it) so you can use it in the future!

A conceptual framework is just a "picture in your head" of how it all fits together—a rough pattern to begin with. When you fit new knowledge into a pre-existing pattern, after you know what to look for and remember, the new learning has meaning for you.

Usually, the lab manual, handouts, pre-lab activities, and other explanations your lab instructor provides give you the framework upon which you can hang all that new stuff you are learning. It's just that most beginning students just don't recognize these helps for what they are.

For example in my textbooks and lab manuals, I provide lists of what the different bone markings are.

A foramen is a simply a hole, for example. But I can't tell you how many students jump into their lists of bone markings without even knowing that every part with "foramen" in the name is hole!

They're poring over diagrams and trying to figure out whether it's the hole or the nearby bump . . . or maybe it's that little depression. Yikes! No wonder it takes them so long to learn . . . and what they learn is so easy to forget.

Starting with a framework, what the names of bone markings mean, makes learning all the markings fun and easy!

For a link to a sample of a framework you can use, go to the related article in the Lion Den.

How we learn new terms

Good news for adult students of A&P!

You were probably thinking that you are too old to be learning so many new terms in such a short period of time. Maybe the brain of a child is good at doing this, you might tell yourself, but I'm past the point where this is easy.

Scientists in Finland have been working on how the brain processes the learning of new terms in the left temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. And their results show that it is actually easier for adults with an established vocabulary to add lists of new terms (and their meanings). And learning the meanings (definitions) of the terms appears to be easier than learning the names themselves!

This news further confirms my suspicion that the hurdle is not so much the list of terms themselves as it is one's confidence in their ability to learn them. In other words, it's all about having a winning attitude. In fact, that's one of my key points in the brief Survival Guide For Anatomy And Physiology: Tips, Techniques And Shortcuts I've recommended to you before.

Want to know more about the recent findings?

Familiar And Newly Learned Words Are Processed By The Same Neural Networks In The Brain.
Academy of Finland (2009, August 30).
ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 30, 2009
[News release summarizing the study and it's importance.]

Want some tips on learning the terms needed for your A&P course?

Learning Terminology
tips and links from The A&P Student blog

New Terms and Learning Terminology
tips and links from the Lion Den website

Survival Guide For Anatomy And Physiology: Tips, Techniques And Shortcuts
my handy little manual with all kinds of learning strategies

Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Study and Review Cards
a new collection of study cards for A&P from my friend Dan Matusiak

Terminology for A&P and International Terminology for Anatomy & Physiology
my YouTube videos helping you get starting with learning terms in A&P

Getting started in a new A and P course

Many of you are just starting (or are about to start) a new A&P course. You will later look back on this course as one of the most interesting and useful courses you have ever taken! But right now, it probably seems a bit overwhelming, eh?

Well, there is a lot to cover in an A&P course . . . especially if you are in a two-semester course or an upper-division A&P course. But, as I tell my own students, it's not really that difficult if you approach it with the right "can do" attitude . . . and armed with the appropriate study skills.

I'll be reviewing some of those study skills over the next few weeks in this blog. So you'll probably want to subscribe to this blog so that you get the articles as they are posted.

To subscribe by way of a feed reader click here. Then choose your feed method.

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To subscribe through your Facebook account click here. Then become a "fan."

I have a few tips to get us started this week:

1. Many experts suggest that for every hour spent in a college class (or lab) you spend two hours working on the course on your own. That's the average. Anatomy and physiology courses are above average . . . which means that you should be working on your own more than two hours per week. So if (in lecture and lab) you are spending 5 hours, then you should be spending more than ten hours working on your own for the A&P course.

This may mean that you have to postpone a trip, a wedding or honeymoon, a divorce, a move, a big sporting event, a job change, that big mountain climb, or other major life events. If they can't be postponed until after you complete A&P, now is the time to consider whether you really want to take A&P this semester! Maybe next semester is the best time for you to start A&P.

2. The only way to "shortcut" anatomy and physiology is to hone your study skills. Reading this blog is a good start. You may also want to consider the Survival Guide For Anatomy And Physiology: Tips, Techniques And Shortcuts. This short and light-hearted look at how to improve your approach to A&P is available through any bookstore—whether at your school, down the road, or online. It's brief, easy to read, and heavily illustrated. You'll be on the right track immediately with this handy little manual.

3. Start scanning through previous posts on this blog. There are several ways to do that. They all involve going to any blog page and using the tools provided in the right column. If you scroll far enough down, you'll find these to be helpful:

Topics—Choose a topic and you'll be taken to several articles that address that topic.

Blog Archive—click on the little arrowheads to list the archive for a particular month. Some readers like to go back to the beginning (or perhaps just one year) and scan through the headlines backwards to the most current posting.

Search—the search box is found at the very top edge of any blog page. Use that to search for all the posts on a particular topic.

Easter egg alert: you can sometimes (not always) find additional tips, resources, or odd treasures by clicking the images found in my blog posts!

Learn about the flu AND win $2500

The federal Department of Health and Human Services has just announced a contest that should be of interest to students of human anatomy and physiology who have a creative urge:

Make a brief video PSA (public service announcement) and you'll have a chance to win $2500 . . . enough to cover the cost of your A&P textbook AND your A&P lab manual AND a candy bar!

Even if you don't win the contest, you'll have learned some useful information about human health and disease . . . perhaps something that'll come in handy in your own life or your career. And maybe you can use it for credit in your A&P, micro, or film course, eh?

Check it out:



If you can't see the video in your news feed or emailed newsletter, then just click here to access it at the blog.

By the way, do you know what you should do about your A&P class if you have the flu?

NOTHING! Do not come to school. Do not work on your homework. The rest of us don't want your flu . . . and you need to rest and survive the flu so you can come back and work like the dickens to catch up with what you've missed.

{FYI, the image seen in the blog post is a colorized negative stained transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted some of the structure of the A/CA/4/09 swine flu virus.}

Reading scientific terms

I've said before that the first step to learning the concepts of A&P is learning the language of A&P. Some new research shows us why learning and recognizing the terms used in an A&P course are important for understanding the story being told in the course.

A recent article in Science News summarizes new research that demonstrates that when you read a passage, such as in your A&P textbook, your brain is recognizing whole words rather then reading each term letter by letter. At least that's what appears to be happening with "good readers" of the material. Folks that have difficulty reading a passage probably have to stop more often at unfamiliar terms and read them letter by letter (or word part by word part).

Reading experts have understood for a long time that familiarity with the words . . . the vocabulary of the material you are reading . . . improves reading speed and retention. Now, we have some insights as to how the brain works in producing this effect . . . and proof to back up what was once conjecture about brain mechanisms.

So how can we apply this concept to improving your learning of A&P?

• Always familiarize yourself with the new terms of each new chapter of your A&P textbook before you read the chapter
• Read through the word list out loud to give your brain the familiarity with term it needs to recognize the terms as you encounter then when reading. The word list begins at the start of each chapter. This sounds silly, and it seems like it might be a waste of time, but it really works . . . and in the long run, saves you time by allowing you to read faster.
• Even if you don't read the textbook (a really bad idea), you'll need these terms to understand your teacher, handouts, and your own notes
• Use the in-text pronunciation guides and online audio pronunciation guide that comes with your textbook to make sure that you use the correct pronunciation for each term. This allows your brain to really "own" the term so that it doesn't trip you up and slow you down as you read.
• By putting a little time and effort into getting familiar with new words at the beginning of a new topic, you'll end up saving time later on. And most importantly, you'll be much more likely to understand what you are reading.

Studying A&P can be frustrating because of all the new terms involved. But you've just learned a great way . . . a scientifically supported way . . . of reducing that frustration!

For more tips on learning terminology, including some brief videos, see these previous articles.

[photo by (nz)dave at flickr]

Ever seen a Winking Skull?

Looking for a FREE web-based anatomy exploration to help you study? Try the Winking Skull.

Created by the publisher Thieme to accompany their Atlas of Anatomy, this web-based tool is FREE for any user . . . even if you don't have the book.

Of course, if do have the book (with an included access code), then you'll have access to more features than in the free version.

HINT: The Atlas of Anatomy one of several great atlases that would be a good addition to your growing professional library . . . something you'll use the rest of your life.

But the free version is pretty good, even without the extra "PLUS" features. Oh, I almost forgot this . . . if you want to use all the features of the free version, you have to sign up for a free user account . . . not much of a hurdle, eh?

You can navigate to different regions of the body, and from there click on any of the thumbnails of detailed anatomical art. Once you arrive at a piece of art, you can view it WITH LABELS or WITHOUT LABELS . . . a useful feature for self-quizzing or exploring things in lab.

A little drop-down menu at the top, right corner of the screen allows you to choose between English labels and Latin labels for anatomical structures.

The images can be zoomed in and out. You can also quickly flip to different views of the region you are exploring.

There are also built-in, timed quizzes where the user can set the parameters of the quiz.

Let us know what you think of it!

Now on Facebook

The A&P Student blog now has a page on Facebook.

Come visit us there, become a fan, and participate in our Facebook community!

And don't forget to share it with your friends taking A&P . . . or will be soon.

The A&P Student's Facebook Page

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Do NOT sell your textbook!

After your A&P class is over, you may be tempted to sell your A&P textbook back to your college bookstore, to a bookbuyer visiting your campus, or to a friend who'll be taking A&P next semester.

DO NOT do that!

Yeah, I know, you can use the cash. But unless you absolutely need that cash now in order to keep from starving . . . it's not worth it.

Why not?

Because you are going to need it later. And you are going to need it often.

Most students who take an A&P course are headed into some health or athletic program or professional course later. Most (if not all) your core and clinical/practicum courses are going to be based on the principles you learned in your A&P class!

If you save your book, your notes, your flashcards, lab manual, and everything else, then you'll have it handy and ready when you need it in later courses. Many later courses assume that you remember all your A&P. Of course, that can't be true because no matter how good your A&P course is, you have to use it a few times before you become thoroughly familiar with it. So no matter how well you did in your A&P course, you are going to have to review your A&P frequently throughout each of your later professional courses.

Besides that, your A&P book can be the start of your own professional library.

Successful professionals build a library of resources during their early training . . . and continue to add to their library throughout their professional careers.

A good professional library will come in handy to review concepts you haven't used in a while, when you're suddenly pulled to work on a different floor or in a different department, when you change jobs, when take a continuing education course, or when you encounter some new case.

Not going to be majoring in any of the human sciences?

Well, OK, you are still a human being, right? Wouldn't it be a good idea to keep the "owner's manual" handy? Just in case there's a health issue that you, your family, or a friend wants to explore a little more thoroughly. Or to help teach your kids about the human body and it's function? Or to figure out what they're talking about on your favorite medical show?

I can't tell you how many of my past students tell me how they regret having sold their A&P books! All I can do is empathize . . . and give them my famous, "I told you so" look.

I'm telling you now . . . DO NOT SELL BACK YOUR BOOK!

You WILL regret it later.

Exam time!

Many students have exams coming up this week or next . . . or sometime soon.

Last week, I shared some tips for exam preparation.

Now here are a few tips for what to do on exam day . . . and during the exam:

• Be healthy. Do NOT stay up nights studying . . . sleep deprivation will reduce your ability to perform well. Eat well in the days leading up to the exam. Try to reduce stress. Exercise (it'll help you think more clearly).
  
  
• Get to the test in time. Duh-uh, of course you should be there in time. But for the exam, try to get there early. I've seen SO many students cut it close, then something comes up (bad traffic, for example) and they come in LATE. Not only does that cut down the time you have to take the exam . . . you'll be flustered and unable to think clearly.
  
  
• Skim over the exam before taking it. This will give you an idea of what's ahead and you can use your time wisely.
  
  
• Don't waste time on something you really don't know. Do all the parts you are confident about. Then use the remaining time to work on the real puzzlers. If you start with the puzzling parts, you won't have time for the parts you know well . . . and you might get flustered and bomb the whole thing.
  
  
• Double check your responses. Make sure you read the question accurately (a common mistake). Makes sure things are spelled correctly. If you use a scan sheet, make sure you answered on the correct line. If there are complex problems, and you have time, do them AGAIN--just to make sure you got the right answer.
  
  
• Don't skip anything. Well, if you absolutely run out of time, you have no choice. But if time gets away from you and realize that you have only a few minutes for the remaining items that you'd prefer to take more time with . . . then just "go with your gut" and fill in some fast answers. You'd be surprised how many may turn out to be right (especially if you've prepared yourself well).

There are more tips at the Study Tips & Tools page on Taking Tests.

Study Stack

In recent posts I mentioned flashcard rescources such as Flashcard Exchange and also recommended that you check the data in the resources before using them to study.

Here's another resource you might find useful:

StudyStack

This site allows you to choose a topic, then study the data in any of several formats:

• notes
• flashcards
• study stack (try this one out . . . it's cool)
  
• study table
• matching
• Hangman
• crossword
• wordsearch
• unscramble
• type in
• bug match (this one is crazy, but fun)

You can also choose to

• export the data
• print the data
• edit the data
• recommend other options

For example, see the stack on the Endocrine System. Click on each of the formats to see what you get!

To find topics related to A&P, try these:

• Medical/Nursing
• Medical/Anatomy
• Medical/Physiology

There are many different levels represented here, going all the way up through med-school level. So you'll have to pick the data that suits your needs.

How about this . . . why don't you make some stacks fo your own and put them up and then request a new category for undergrad A&P?

Exams are coming!

Many students are preparing for upcoming final exams. Or they SHOULD be!

Now is a good time to go over your study strategy.

What is a study strategy? It's your plan regarding how you are going to prepare yourself for your tests and exams.

Why bother to have a specific plan? Well, you want to PASS the course, don't you? Sure! You want to do more than that . . . you want to EXCEL (otherwise you wouldn't even be reading this, eh?). Having a plan will make your exam preparations more efficient (that is, less time-consuming) and more likely to produce a successful outcome.

Each student's best strategy will be somewhat unique them--tailored to individual strengths and learning styles. (Click here for more on learning styles.)

A good strategy will have been fine-tuned by previous experimentation with different study plans over the course of the semester.

Here are a few things to think about when developing your study strategy:

• What study plan has worked in the past? What hasn't worked out so well?
  
  
• What do you know about the format of the upcoming exam? What kinds of items will be on the exam?
  
  
• What is the content of the exam? What concepts will be tested?
  
  
• What has your instructor told you about the exam? Professors often drop a lot of hints. Even if they don't, you can always just ASK them. Most professors will have SOME KIND of advice for their students. A good question to ask is, "how do you go about making up the exam?" Such a question will often reveal what the professor finds to be most important.
  
  
• Practice the exam. Use previous tests from the course (if available) to practice the exam. One way to do this is to cut up copies of your tests and draw individual items randomly from an envelope. Sometimes professors will provide a practice exam or copies of some old exams. If not offered, it wouldn't hurt to ask.
  
  
• Study with a group. Pooling your thoughts, and helping each other review and practice, work surprisingly well to solidify what you already know and to fill in any gaps.
  
  
• Manage your time well. Don't cram at the last minute . . . do a little preparation each day for a week or more before the exam.

For more study tips, see Study Tips & Tools in the Lion Den.

Next week, I'll share some strategies for what do during the exam.

Pinky and the Brain

Have you ever seen the Pinky and the Brain cartoon? Here's a crazy video clip from the show sent to me by one of my favorite textbook editors, Karen Turner over at Elsevier (Mosby). It features a musical tour through the brain.

[Here's an easter egg in Anatomy & Physiology 7th ed. . . . Karen Turner's photo is on p. 55]

Although this clip is funny and includes a lot of "real" anatomy terms and structures, it's not very useful in understanding brain anatomy in an organized way . . . it's just a jumble of random structures, jumping all around and from microscopic to macroscopic and back again. But it IS entertaining!

[The video player embedded here may not appear in your news feed or emailed newsletter. Go to The A&P Student blog to access the video viewer. ]

So why share it with you?

First, because . . . well . . . it IS entertaining.

Second, it gives me the opportunity to bring up (once again) the value of silly songs as a learning tool.

Remember my previous article Pump your blood, which featured a silly song about blood flow through the systemic and pulmonary circulation? That one was effective because it put all the essential facts together in a way that makes sense (unlike the Pinky and the Brain clip). Such songs teach not only the facts . . . but also (and this is important) how the facts fit together.

Silly songs can also be useful as mnemonic devices to remember the anatomical order of structures in the body or the members of a group of structures in the body (see Sad Pucker).

Third, I'm sharing this video because even though this clip is "not very useful" in learning A&P, it is still "somewhat useful." It does show structures visually while at the same time stating the names . . . which will probably help remember where they are and what they look like.

But one must alway be careful with this sort of thing (media not really intended to be strictly educational) because there may be unintentional errors or misleading usages embedded in them. Looking for, finding, and correcting such errors can in itself be a learning experience.

For example, the clip contains several eponyms (terms that include someone's name). We learned in last week's article International standards for anatomy terminology that eponyms are "old fashioned." So the clip isn't really wrong in this regard . . . it's just not up to date.

Also, near the end of the clip the term "medulla oblongata" is sung but the entire brainstem and part of the diencephalon is illustrated--not just the medulla oblongata. Ooops. There are probably several more of these that I didn't catch on casual viewing.

Of course, these mistakes only support my previously mentioned hypothesis, summarized here:

Dr. Patton's Theory of Media Science (Dr. P's TMS) . . .which I just made up after years of mulling it over . . . and shouting it to my television screen . . . states that

"biological accuracy of a science-based fictional media production is inverse to the total budget for special effects in the production. "

Do you have other silly songs or video clips to share (accurate or not)?

Then share them with us by "commenting" on this article!