What is their system based approach? I never really heard of this before. Is it the same as learning in modules?
I'll tell you what we are doing right now to illustrate what the approach is like here. We are studying the respiratory system right now. We had 11 science lectures this week (usally around 13 or 14 lectures). We started out with some
physiology lectures on gas transport and regulation of respiration. Then we had a handful of lectures from the
microbiology department on bacterial pneumonias and TB infections as well as some other lectures on fungal infections of the lungs. We finished off the week with some lectures from the
pathology dept about respiratory pathologies.
I think the difference here is that we focus on systems (cardiovascular system or Epithelium/CT/Blood, or Lymphatics/Immune etc) and their associated anatomy, histology, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and pathology with the respective diciplines being taught by professors from their representative fields. This would be opposed to having an anatomy class followed by a pathology class followed by a physiology class etc. We get them all the time as they pertain to the system we are looking at and have 1 exam every week that covers the different diciplines and the material covered the previous week. So rather than several science classes that last the whole duration of a semester or quarter, we have system-based modules within a quarter that last a few weeks per module.
I think it is a great way to go. Been happy with it so far and we are almost done for the year.
This system should not be confused with what ASDOH calls a "modular" system where they will stick with one dicipline and one instructor for a week or two and then move to the next dicipline. That would be like having biochemistry all day for a week or so, then testing and moving on to anatomy for a straight week or two.
