Lab Exam 2 Is This Week

This week's lab exam is on activities Muscular System I, II, and III in your lab manual (pages 27-61). For cat muscles, you are expected to be able to identify and name them. For humans, you should refer to pages 44-47 of the lab manual and learn the OIA chart, as you are expected to know the origin, insertion, and action of all of the muscles on the list.

Since there are no classes on Monday,Wednesday will follow Monday's class schedule.

The exam will take up the first 2 hours of lab, you are expected to return for the last hour, as you will be starting the Nervous System.

I will be in the Student Success Center Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11am. If your exam is in the second hour of lab, please feel free to stop by and see me.

For help with the cat muscles, here is the video I referred you to in lab.
For help with muscle structure, here is a video.

Tips for studying the OIA chart:

• Learn the muscles by groups. They are grouped for you in the OIA chart, but I suggest putting abdominal muscles in their own group to shorten the list of anterior trunk muscles.
• Look for similarities in origin, insertion, and action within these groups so you can break down the information into smaller chunks. 
• Pay attention to the names of muscles, many of them are named based on their origin, insertion, or action. For example: Sternocleidomastoid - O: sternum and clavicle, I: mastoid process
• Remember that the insertion is always on the bone that is being moved.
• Think about how you move your body. If you have ever lifted weights, think about the exercises you do to work on specific muscles. This will help you remember actions.
•  Generally, anterior muscles flex and posterior muscles extend. Actions on the knee are opposite - anterior extends, posterior flexes. Exception: Brachioradialis is the only posterior muscle that flexes.

In the last couple of weeks, you had to do some clay modeling of muscles on a skeleton. Professor Odewale emphasized that some of these will be modeled on the same skeletons for the exam. The muscles were: Deltoid, Latissimus dorsi, Supraspinatus, Biceps brachii, Gluteus maximus, Biceps femoris, Rectus femoris.

This Week's Most Asked & What to Expect Next Week

There were a couple of questions regarding the pectoral girdle and pelvic girdle this week. Hopefully this helps clear up the confusion.

I also ran into a lot of students who were studying for today's lecture quiz during lab hours. While you should be studying lecture material outside of class, doing so in lab will eat up the limited amount of time you have to learn the material. Each lab is only set up and available to you for one week.

How to orient the bones that form the Pectoral Girdle:

Scapula: 

• Scapular spine faces posteriorly
• Glenoid cavity faces laterally

Clavicle:

•  The flattened (sternal) end is medial
• Medial curvature of the clavicle projects anteriorly
• Superior surface is smooth, inferior surface is rough

Humerus:

• Head of the humerus is proximal and medial
• Olecranon fossa is posterior; medial epicondyle is medial

The above was taken directly from the chart on page 21 of the lab manual. If you are having trouble orienting and articulating bones, study the articulated skeletons in lab and review anatomical directional terms.

Pelvic Girdle:

I used an analogy today and compared the pelvic girdle to a basketball hoop. The ilium and sacrum make up the backboard. The pelvic brim (pelvic inlet) is the hoop and the ishium and pubis make up the net. The space above the hoop is the false pelvis, the space within the net is the true pelvis. The bottom of the net is the pelvic outlet.

Image from Wikipedia

Image Source

Regarding Tutor Requests

Joanne at Student Success Center sent out the following email to clear up any issues:

For students enrolled in Prof. Odewale’s sections (BIOL 1010-001, 002, 003, 004) you have an anatomy tutor IN YOUR LAB!!!  Please use the tutor in the lab.  Based on the past six years that I have been doing this job, most anatomy students have questions about the lab portion of class.  This is why we pay the tutors to work in the lab.  Do not be afraid to ask your lab tutor questions.  The schedule of lab tutors is below.

BIOL 1010-003          Human Anatomy                T 9 – 12            Paula            3034

BIOL 1010-001          Human Anatomy                W 11 – 2          Brandon               3034

BIOL 1010-004          Human Anatomy                R 9 – 12            Paula            3034

BIOL 1010-002          Human Anatomy                F 10:30 – 1:30   Nicole                3034

TIPS for Studying for Anatomy

·        Most students will need to set aside about 15-20 hours of studying per week.  This is in addition to your lecture and lab hours.

o   Study for no more than one hour at a time.  Take a breaks.  Do not study for 3-4 hours straight without a break – it’s a waste of your time since your brain cannot absorb information after about an hours’ worth of studying!

o   Study 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon, 1 hour at night EVERYDAY and you will have studied for 21 hours that week! 

·        Many students leave lab early – DO NOT LEAVE LAB EARLY!  This is your chance to work with the instructor and the lab tutor (if you are in a section that has a lab tutor). 

·        Read your textbook, use PAL, flashcards, coloring books, etc.

·        Talk with your instructor – he/she is the subject matter expert and they want to help you learn! 

·        Visit the Student Success Center to use the bones, muscles, etc. to study when the lab is closed

·        Sign up for a study skill workshop if you need more  help in developing better study habits.

o   www.ccri.edu/success - click on the “request a workshop” link, complete the form, and hit the submit button

Next Week:

All lab exams will be given next week during the first half of your scheduled lab time. The exam will cover all of the information from labs 1, 2, and 3 - Tissues, Axial Skeleton, and Appendicular Skeleton. At the end of labs 2 and 3, there is a list of bones and their features that should have already identified in lab. At the end of lab 1, there is a table that should help you identify tissues. Questions on the exam are based off of these lists. Also, if you are having trouble remembering bone features, refer to the chart on page 133 of your textbook.

The second half of lab, following the exam, will begin the section on the muscular system, starting with muscle tissues. Since this is mostly review, it is likely that labs 4 and 5 will be combined. Cat dissections also start next week. Remember to bring gloves to lab. You will need them for the rest of the semester.  

Most Asked - Lab Week 2, pt. 2

There seems to be some confusion about the lab tutor schedule that was sent out via mass email.

While I am happy to answer any questions regarding the course and related topics, lab tutors are there for additional help in the lab itself. The lecture topics are completely different and the lab tutors are not kept up to date on them. So, if you have questions regarding lecture topics, or need to know what you will be tested on, the best person to ask is your professor. If you continue to struggle with lecture material, consider requesting additional tutoring sessions outside of the lab.

If lab concepts seem to be a problem area, feel free to go to additional lab sessions, especially when tutors are available. Because the semester just started, the labs are still very full and space is limited, so please make sure to check in with the appropriate professor before attending a lab you are not scheduled for. In my experience, the crowd starts to thin out around the second half of the lab, so that may be a better time to stop in, at least for the next few weeks. Also keep in mind the the Student Success Center has similar lab models and diagrams available and their hours are much more flexible.

In the last couple of lab sessions, I have gotten a lot of questions regarding the bone model at Table 2. Here is a video that explains the anatomy of a long bone and osteon using the same model seen in lab.

Most Asked - Lab Week 2, pt. 1

This week's lab completes the section on tissue types and introduces bones, starting with the gross anatomy and axial skeleton.

Click here for video links on tissue types.

Click here for video links on the axial skeleton.

The single most common question of today's lab: The coronal suture joins which three bones? Don't over think it. This was actually a popular question last semester and most students kick themselves once they have the answer - the frontal bone and both parietal bones.

I've noticed that the biggest issue students face at the start of the semester is over thinking the questions being asked and anticipating complicated answers.  Learn from this question. Slow down and think about it. If you have taken the time to study the material and the answer you come up with makes sense to you, don't second guess yourself. I know too many students, myself included, who are guilty of letting their lack of confidence get in the way, especially during lab exams.

As expected, the other popular questions today were regarding tutoring and the Student Success Center. You can find most of the information you need here.

Tissue Types

I know students at CCRI are going to be spending an awful lot of time this week blankly staring through light microscopes in the Anatomy lab. To make things a little easier, I created a list of video links about tissue types, which can be found here.

Lab tutoring doesn't start until next week, but when it does I'll try to post helpful information based on the most common problem areas.

Content is Scarce

Look around anyway.