The class is technically about human phys, but we work w/ animals sometimes in lab, so that's where the name comes from. Our first week, we gave the groups 2 crayfish, one was normal, and one had a lesion in its nerve cord. By doing different tests for reflexes and voluntary reactions, they had to figure out which crayfish was lesioned, and where on that nerve cord it was lesioned.
This week, they learned about action potentials in lecture, so we taught them about seeing action potentials occur by using earthworms. We put the worms in a nerve chamber hooked up to electrodes and sent currents through them. On the computer, they could see the depolarization and hyperpolarization. They had to calculate conduction velocity of the current and then also had to find the refractory period.
Our other labs consist of things like skeletal muscle (in a frog), smooth muscle (in a worm), blood glucose (human), kidney function (human), a PBL about nerve disorders, etc. They also have to design their own experiment, run it, and write up a research paper on it. It's a great lab.
I really enjoy teaching... maybe it will lead to a career in academic medicine later on... who knows?
I want to go home and check my mail (even though I doubt I would get anything yet) but I've been stuck at my research lab all day setting up a 3D gel for my stem cells to go on. It takes 5 freakin hours to set the gel since it has to set, change pH, set pH, and then it's finally done. Whew!
