Introducing Children to Anatomy: “Getting to Know Our Bodies: The First Step Toward Becoming a Scientist”

Abstract

Museums are used in every discipline to collect, classify, and present information for scientific purposes. They also serve as an effective educational medium. Since the establishment of a boutique anatomy museum at Bahçeşehir University, lectures, conferences, and seminars have been organized there over the past four years on the history of human anatomy and the human body. In order to raise awareness about the need to make anatomy accessible to kindergarteners and school‐aged children, rather than exclusively to undergraduate students, activities that are suited to a wide range of ages have been developed at the museum and at the anatomy laboratory. Four different sessions were conducted, including activities such as lectures using plastic models as props, shaping organs out of playdough, anatomy puzzles, watching cartoons, and examining specimens through a microscope. Healthy and pathologic anatomies were chosen to match daily themes. Among the kindergarteners and elementary school children, no grading was done, nor was any questionnaire administered; however, a survey was administered in the 10–12 age group (N = 64). According to the students' written feedback, 93.75% said they “are happy with microscope activities” while 84.37% said they “had so much fun” participating in the playdough activities. However, 18.75% criticized the activities, saying they “could have been longer.” In conclusion, it is believed that these “getting to know our bodies” activities that were hosted in the anatomy museum, including conferences, workshops, material preparation, and instructional movies, may play an important role in the development of a healthy society.

Flexible, short‐duration outreach sessions in the human anatomy laboratory provide authentic, humanistic experiences

“…Earlier and repeated outreach interventions such as the "Grow up, Grow out" model implemented by Deal et al (2014), museum-based programs for children (Ortug et al, 2021) or interventions targeted at specific populations (Henderson et al, 2015) these students place in an authentic experience in a gross anatomy laboratory rather than virtually or, as they responded, "in pictures" or "in an animal." Additionally, these sessions may be the first exposure that some students have to the humanism that is inherent to an ethical human anatomy education (Aziz et al, 2002;Hildebrandt, 2016).…”

“…The authors suspect that students who are enrolled in an anatomy course in high school (and thus eligible to participate in the HALES) are already motivated toward healthcare as a career. Earlier and repeated outreach interventions such as the “Grow up, Grow out” model implemented by Deal et al (2014), museum‐based programs for children (Ortug et al, 2021) or interventions targeted at specific populations (Henderson et al, 2015) may increase interest in pursuing a STEM career to a greater degree. It should be noted that, despite our quantitative results failing to show increased interest in STEM careers, several coded responses did indicate interest or excitement toward healthcare careers, particularly nursing and medicine.…”

Practical anatomy classes: An alternative to improve the learning of middle school students

“…Plastination laboratories are distributed worldwide, including in Brazil, where some universities in the Southeast region produce and use plastinated human and non‐human specimens as teaching and learning tools, 45 including the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It has previously been shown that interactions between universities and schools through outreach programs have positive outcomes in career paths, 46–48 learning about science, 49,50 and interest in anatomy and related issues 51,52 . Therefore, by promoting the use of plastinated material at middle and high schools, not only an alternative to practical classes is being sought but interactions with higher education universities are also stimulated.…”

“…It has previously been shown that interactions between universities and schools through outreach programs have positive outcomes in career paths, [46][47][48] learning about science, 49,50 and interest in anatomy and related issues. 51,52 Therefore, by promoting the use of plastinated material at middle and high schools, not only an alternative to practical classes is being sought but interactions with higher education universities are also stimulated.…”

Re‐examining our roots: Queer history and anatomy

“…This law is a great example of how anatomy, language, and gender intertwine. However, I believe this law is another warning sign that Anatomy has more work to do in terms of education and the public discourse, a phenomenon that has of recent interest to the field (Ortug et al, 2021; Taylor et al, 2018) The historical record is filled with narratives of human variation outside the “norm” and the majority and the use of this knowledge in the social and legal spheres of human life (Fausto‐Sterling, 2020; Manion, 2020; Reis, 2009).…”