Showing posts with label skeletal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skeletal. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

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?



Monday, October 2, 2017

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.



Tuesday, October 7, 2014

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




Monday, September 15, 2014

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



Friday, September 27, 2013

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.








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

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

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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

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




Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

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"

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

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Painless memorization with Quizlet

Understanding anatomy and physiology often begins with building a foundation of basic terminology and identification of structures by name and location.  Yikes, that means memorization.  

A lot of folks dread memorization tasks because they simply don't know how to do it in a quick, pain-free manner. Once you know the tricks of memorization, it's not that bad.

The essential trick is to practice, practice, practice. 

That means every day, several times a day, if possible.

However, this will only work if you spend just a few minutes at a time practicing.  If you try to get in all in one long session, it won't work . . . or at least least is won't work very well.  In fact, the "long session approach" can sometimes burn you out so badly, it'll be hard to make yourself study the same topic again.

One of the easiest ways to practice painlessly is to make and use flashcards.  I have a previous blog post and a study tip web page and even a YouTube video devoted to methods of using flashcards to study A&P effectively.

My friend Monica Hall-Woods (another A&P professor) reminded me recently of a website called Quizlet.com where you can easily make a set of flashcards online (for FREE) and use it to study and to quiz yourself.  In fact, Quizlet.com gives you some alternative methods to quiz yourself, including some fun, game-like activities.

The more practice sessions you do on Quizlet.com, the more you'll almost effortlessly pick up the basic facts that you are trying to learn.  Quizlet.com helps you keep track of what you've studied and how you are doing.

You can also upload photos from Flikr.com . . . which means that you can take photos of your lab specimens with your smartphone, then upload the images into a set of flashcards!

Another great feature of Quizlet.com is that you can form study groups.  This allows one or more users to post and share sets of flashcards related to a particular topic.

Quizlet.com also lets you use flashcard stacks that others have created.  (Warning: be careful those you use are accurate before using them to study.)  Here's a stack of cards that I created simply by cutting and pasting a list I already had into the Quizlet.com editor:


Try it!  Use different options for quizzing yourself and playing games. I think you'll have fun with it. Which is the point . . . the less pain, the more gain.  At least in this case.

Let me know what you think!  And use the comment feature (below this blog article) to post your favorite Quizlet.com sets you've made or found . . . so other A&P students can benefit.

Monday, July 26, 2010

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)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

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.



Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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.