This article describes a community collaborative project, "I've got yer back," that utilized the craft of needle felting to raise awareness and develop understanding of the anatomy of the human spine. The project took place in 2023 and engaged with participants from across the United Kingdom and abroad and its completion was timed to coincide with National Back Health Awareness week in October 2023. We describe the process of creating a vertebra using needle felt and examine how the particularities of the process and the use of the sense of touch helped participants notice and understand the complex form of the human vertebra.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroanatomy is a notoriously challenging subject for medical students to learn. Due to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, anatomical education transitioned to an online format. We assessed student performance in, and attitudes toward, an online neuroanatomy assessment compared to an in-person equivalent, as a marker of the efficacy of remote neuroanatomy education.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnatomy Nights is an international public engagement event created to bring anatomy and anatomists back to public spaces with the goal of increasing the public's understanding of their own anatomy by comparison with non-human tissues. The event consists of a 30-minute mini-lecture on the anatomy of a specific anatomical organ followed by a dissection of animal tissues to demonstrate the same organ anatomy. Before and after the lecture and dissection, participants complete research surveys designed to assess prior knowledge and knowledge gained as a result of participation in the event, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnat Rec (Hoboken)
April 2022
As European anatomical teaching developed in the middle ages, anatomists found themselves balanced between the educational and judicial systems. Dissection was associated with the final stages of legal prosecutions and the supply of bodies was severely limited. Driven by increasing student demand for dissection, anatomists found themselves pushed to explore alternative routes for body supply.
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