What is first-semester anatomy like at your school?

[BlistexWorks]

I am getting the impression that there is great variation between different veterinary schools with regards to how anatomy is taught. I think it would be interesting to hear different perspectives from each of the schools, and perhaps pros/cons and how it could be improved.

I'm a first year student at the University of Florida, and this is what it was like, in general:

For this fall semester, we were required to have a copy of "Guide to the Dissection of the Dog" (by Evans de Lahunta), as well as an anatomy lab guide (84 pages) that included a section on performing a clinical examination as well as other clinical procedures. Another guide book (62-page clinical correlations guide) was filled with surgical procedures and ideal approaches that pertained to what we were learning. It included information on what structural landmarks to look out for and what nerves and vessels to avoid. We had three lectures pertaining to this, which then included 30 minutes with live dogs (about 6 people per dog) in order to palpate certain important structures and ask questions.

The course had five quizzes, two exams, and a cumulative final exam. The quizzes were roughly divided up by thoracic limb, pelvic limb, thorax, abdomen, and head. The first exam included information regarding the first two quizzes plus a written portion, and the second exam included information regarding quizzes three and four plus its own written portion. The final exam, counting for 1/3 of our total grade, was cumulative but focused heavily on the canine head.

The course lasted 52 weekdays, and we (all 88 of us) were pretty much in lab every day from 1:15 to 4:00pm, though sometimes we would have radiology labs, clinical correlations, and other lectures taking up some of those afternoons. We had four students per canine cadaver and each student was given their own bone boxed set. We followed the lab guide in terms of what structures to find next, but what made the experience extremely positive was the availability of eleven instructional staff that really went out of their way to help us and keep us on track. Two were professors, two were DVMs, one was a facilitator, and six were senior veterinary students. They were always there for us and most of us got to know them really well.

The examinations were very fair (why feel the need to have nasty tricks?) and we were given 90 seconds per station (around 15-20 stations for quizzes and 34-38 stations for exams). The anatomy room was well ventilated, very roomy, and we did not have to share stations (no "A" or "B" group or other classes using our room).

We will be performing equine dissections next semester (eight people per group, four on each side) and believe it will last about 4-6 weeks. As fas as I know we will not be dissecting any other animals.

I really really really enjoyed this class and learned a ton! The instructional staff was amazing and the clinical applications for the structures we had to identify were often emphasized. As far as improving the course, I think that at least including feline anatomy sometime would be important. I find that we had plenty of time to prepare for each quiz and examination as we were in lab every single day. Seldom did I stay late or come back to study at night. Probably the most challenging aspect of the course was memorizing all of the origins, insertions, blood supply, innervation, and action of each of the muscles, even though there was not a heavy emphasis on the origins or insertions.

So, how was your first semester of anatomy???

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[aretoo]

Hey! I'm in first year at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. First of all we are not semestered, so our anatomy class (like our other classes) goes all year long. Also we start later than many American schools (we started on Labour Day - Sept 7th this year), and we haven't had any bellringers or exams per se yet.

Our class is split into 'Practice Groups' that we use for all of our classes, so we use them for dissecting as well. There are 12 groups, and each group have 9 or 10 people.
- Our Anatomy class is divided into 3 parts: lecture, lab, and live animal lab.
- The lectures are divided into regions (i.e. today's lectures are nose and mouth) and our basic regions are (in order that we did/do them): thorax, abdomen, head/neck, thoracic limb, and pelvic limb - different profs teach different regions, and whichever prof is teaching that region in lecture will be present in lab, along with other support staff who know lots of anatomy!
- For labs, each group has its own cat, dog, and calf, and each lab 'section' (which is 6 groups, or half the class) has a sheep and a horse to share. We are all responsible for knowing all of the structures on all animals.
- Profs add clinical relevance wherever they like
- Live Animal Labs are generally held in the barn where our teaching cows and horses are housed (separately) - we go over prominent structures and important landmarks, etc. We had one SA one but they are mostly LA so far.
- For testing we have viva voces (group oral exams - we all recieve the same mark), individual bellringers, integrated midterms (i.e. midterms that have anatomy questions along with physiology, histology, etc.), and a final in April.

I also really like our course so far

 

[No Imagination]

One thing that Miss. State does that I love - is the lab practical (50% of the grade and 50 questions) is a 'free for all' - You have your sheet, you have your stations, and you have 1 hour to awnser everything. Need to spend 5 minutes thinking about question #42, go for it. As long as you are out in 60 minutes or so, all is good.

We are also encouraged to move things around (just don't break anything) - You can pull on veins, arteries, pull muscles to see what moves, ect. Hell, I even flipped over a horses leg to see where a damn ligament connected to (lacertis fibrosis, Bicepts --> Ex. Carpi Rad (i think)).

I never would have gotten it if I couldn't spend a few minutes thinking about it - but I knew it, just took a bit longer. I hate times stations/questions, doesn't test if you know something so much as how fast your brain works

 

[MrSquirtles]

I'm a first year at UGA. Our only required text is Guide to Dissection of the Dog, but I also use Pasquini and Miller's. We are split into two different groups and have 3 people per dog. We have 3 exams, a radiology quiz, and a palpation quiz that make up our grade. For the exams, we have 90 seconds per station with 50 stations per test, and then we have an hour long lecture exam. The exams are written by 3 professors, and for the most part the questions are pretty fair, with the exception of one professor who finds a way to make anything hard.... but such is life We have 4 or 5 lab sessions throughout the semester that are called "Anatomy Surgery Exercises" in which various surgeons from the hospital come show us why it's worth it to know anatomy. They're pretty fun.
Overall I LOVE the class, it's just annoying having the two groups. We switch half way through, so right now I get out of lecture at 12 and have to wait until 3 to go to lab. Gives me time to study, but still... annoying.

I hope everyones classes are going well! So far so good for me (for the most part).

 

[ORvetgirl]

I go to Oregon State, and am pretty much loving anatomy so far (though we're on the pesky quarter system, so we haven't been at it as long). We are in groups of 4, and each group is assigned a dog and a cat each day. We rotate specimens each class, so that everyone gets to see things on males and females of each species. We are learning the material by region of the body instead of by systems, and don't do comparative anatomy this term other than the differences between the dog and cat. Next quarter we'll finish dogs and cats, do a short amount of time on some other species (small ruminants I think, but I'm not positive), and then we move on to large animal in late winter/spring. We have class 3 days a week, with an hour or two of lecture and then lab for the rest of the class.

We have one main instructor, with an associate instructor occasionally lecturing. In lab, the main instructor rotates from group to group, while two other instructors go where they're needed, along with a rotating cast of TAs.

We're graded on three quizzes, 2 midterms, and a final, as well as participation and they examine our labwork (for a total of maybe 10 points). We also peer review our lab partners once a term. The midterms and final have lab and lecture portions. For the lab portion, we can free rotate and spend time as needed at each station, as long as we're considerate of others needs to get to stations. We can touch and move structures unless otherwise noted. The lab portion includes palpation and radiography.

Our lab is really nice and new, with television screens and laptops (mounted on movable arms) at each station, super nice tables that suck the air down, and a great ventilation system. The only complaint would be that even as the smallest vet school class size in the country, we're kind of outgrowing the room, as my class is the largest in Oregon State CVM's history.

 

[DVMorBust]

Go to UW-Madison, and we've got 'Fundamentals' (basically dog/cat anatomy) in fall and Large Animal in spring. Fall is taught in close relation with Radiographic Anatomy.

Lab is 3 students per group, and each group gets a dog. They will lay out demonstrations for cat differences, and will put cats on the tests for same or different structures.

Three tests, last one cumulative. We take the written and then the lab practical and radiographic second (or vice versa - split the class in half). Our practicals are also a 'free-for-all', just get out in the time allotted (about 1.5 hours for 30 anatomy questions (lots of a and b though) and 30 radiographic (mostly slide reading, determining landmarks, etc.)

Second semester (LA), only the lecture is required (although maaaybe 1 or 2 people don't do lab). You can do one lab or two - either the horse, cow, or both. You're responsible for learning both species wether or not you take both dissections (groups are arranged horse-cow-horse-cow in both offered times). LA radiographic is also optional.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

First semester of anatomy at Iowa State is anatomy of the dog. We have lecture and lab 3 days a week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Our required texts are Miller's anatomy of the dog, the dissection guide by Evans and deLahunta, and a lab manual/syllabus we purchase from the bookstore.

We have a systems approach to the material: Bones and muscles, viscera according to system, cardiovascular system, nerves, then lastly the ear and the eye (random, I know). Differences between the dog and the cat are very, very occasionally discussed.

Lecture is pretty much an overview of what we're doing in lab that day--dissecting the nerves of the thoracic limb? We'll go through the location of the ones we need to know, where they come from, where they go, and what happens if it loses function. That type of thing.

For lab, we were assigned bone boxes (2 students/box) and are in self-chosen groups of 4 for the dissection. Each group has its own dog. We're encouraged to visit each of the other dogs at some point before the test. There are 4 instructors who are regularly in the lab, as well as 2-3 second years who come in when they can. Our class is rather large (123 students) so it can be extremely hard to flag one down. We have non-graded quizzes every Thursday.

We have 3 exams and a final; all are 30% cumulative. We get 3 hours to complete the exam, which consists of 25 lecture and 25 lab questions. There is no individual time limit for either half. Half of the class takes the lecture part first while the other half is down in the lab; you simply move to the next part once you're done. We also have a free-for-all for the lab questions but we are NOT allowed to touch the specimens (things are almost always pinned in a clear manner so this hasn't been an issue for me).

Next semester is large animal comparative anatomy (horse, cow, goat, pig, and chicken). I believe each group will dissect either a horse, cow, or goat, while the instructors will dissect a pig. I'm not sure about the chickens.

 

[jellyfishing]

One thing that Miss. State does that I love - is the lab practical (50% of the grade and 50 questions) is a 'free for all' - You have your sheet, you have your stations, and you have 1 hour to awnser everything. Need to spend 5 minutes thinking about question #42, go for it. As long as you are out in 60 minutes or so, all is good.

just a question - if its free for all then how do they know you aren't copying off each other?

 

[elefante7]

In the case of UW-Madison, our professors trust us. They sometimes leave us alone in lecture hall when we're taking an exam too. So far, I haven't seen any evidence of cheating at all so I would say their trust is well placed.

 

[ORvetgirl]

At Oregon State, free for all means you can go to the stations out of order and they aren't timed rotations, but only one person can be at a station at a time. If you are waiting for a particular station and there aren't any others you need open, you can wait a few feet from the table. My class is very honest though, and if a classmate has their clipboard sitting on the end of the table while looking at a specimen, the people waiting in line go out of their way to not see the person's answers.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

There's no limit to the number of people per station at ISU--well, aside from however many can fit around it. We all cover our answers at the stations and go to either the counters (they're on the lab's longer walls) or to the stationless half of the room to write them down. The professors and TAs walk around the room as we're taking the exam... it's more of a policy than a trust issue as far as I can tell.

 

[shortnsweet]

It's amazing seeing how different every school is!! Some of you had just a quiz on what my entire semester was on!!

At Glasgow, anatomy is 2 years long, just like physiology, biomolecular science, and animal husbandry.

Our first "term" is solely devoted to the thoracic limb. We have lecture about twice a week, and then practical on Fridays..pretty much 9-5 anatomy those days, but that's the only time we get in the lab. We dissected the dog, horse, and cow, and discussed the pig/sheep. We also use GDD, but Prof. Boyd is our anatomy professor, so his books(like the colour atlas) come in handy ;-)

We just had our one and only test on that material(crossing my fingers I did well!!)..and it is 7.5% of our total grade for the class. We will have one more class exam next term on the hindlimb which is 7.5% as well. It was a two hour written, and a 50 minute practical exam. We had one minute per station to identify 2 things, and there were a total of 40 stations (plus 10 blank), but we were not allowed to go back. The professional exam in May is 85% of our grade and cumulative. The 2nd year professional is cumulative for both years (eek!).

Good luck on all your midterms/finals/whatnot!! And have a happy Thanksgiving Break!! I'm going to miss that holiday....

 

[LLIPPY]

Alright, ill throw Western into the mix. I pretty much love how its done. We are on block schedules meaning we only have exams every 8 weeks - or 8 weeks of class, 9th week is one full week of exams. We are also PBL so what books you get and resources you use are up to you! Of course some are more popular than others. We don't have lectures (that's right - read NO lectures, thank goodness) if something is very imp the profs may have a demonstration about it but they are always in lab to confirm things for us. Basically I love it for 2 reasons - since we are PBL, we have pretty much the same schedule for 2 years before we go into rotations. Meaning we do almost everything twice!we are in lab for 2 years really giving us time to know the cadavers and anything we want to go back to.we get a dog and a cat per group. Love that and that nothing is rushed or overdone. I DON'T spend every day in lab, nor weekends in lab. Also, just to make sure we are on the right track we have "formative quizzes" every thursday. The profs make a quiz basically with pins in cadavers just like would be on the exam, then you can check your answers, but no pressure, its JUST for your own knowledge. Not to mention our WAVE program - willed animals for vet ed - so animals who were donated, loved and died of very real diseases we can see. we are very proud of that here.At the end, we have written components on our written exams and a practical like most everyone else.