Tag: anatomy

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How to ruin a perfectly good educational opportunity – have a heart

image of a whale heart
Image of a whale heart pinned on Pinterest

This photo has been doing the rounds of Pinterest recently captioned as “the heart of a blue whale”.  I haven’t been able to find the original source of the photo or been able to confirm that it’s a heart from a whale.  Regardless – it’s a big heart and an impressive photo and there are more of them here.

My point here is that it is obviously a photo taken in a lab of a heart that is going to be studied.  It would not have been easy to get and it obviously wasn’t easy to maneuver into the lab.  And what have they done?  Chopped the top off it and made it almost completely useless as a teaching specimen.

What a shame.

Miss Vivi

 

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Specimens for ANZSCTS conference wetlab

Last week we sent out some hearts for the conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS).  Today I’ve received a picture of one of them ready for action.

bovine heart prepared for Bentall procedure workhsop
Bovine heart prepared for Bentall procedure workshop

And what were they going to do with them?   Replacement of the aortic valve, aortic root and ascending aorta in a workshop on the Bentall procedure.

Labbies will be pleased to note that even for heart surgeons sometimes it all comes down to skewers and sticky tape!

Miss Vivi

 

 

 

 

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Dissection Collection: Anatomy Colouring Books

dissection connection dog skull anatomical colouring in worksheet
Dissection Connection dog skull anatomical colouring-in worksheet

Mr Vivi spotted an anatomy colouring book on the internet and just had to have it.  I wasn’t convinced but it duly arrived in the letterbox – and WOW!  What a resource!  We’ve got a collection now and we’re stocking books and flashcards for you.

Anatomical colouring in is normally pitched at tertiary students but we’ve chosen resources that will be suitable for secondary or even upper primary level.  Colouring-in is fun and appeals to all levels and types of learners, diagrams reinforce the relationship of one body part to another and colouring-in highlights the details of anatomy as well as the big picture.  Colour coding is a tried and true method for many different industries so the skills learned can be applied elsewhere, assists in memorising parts of the body, developing motor skills, is a fun mathematics activity for sequential numbering and numeral identification and introduces new vocabulary to enhance science literacy.

Email me if you’d like to see some sample images.

Miss Vivi