Last week on Thursday, the class had the opportunity to be lectured by Dr. Sierra Dawson of the CAATE-accredited graduate athletic training program at UO. Dawson had decided to base her lecture on the human anatomy. This was a huge plus for me since my end of the year project is based right around that field. It was one of my favorite lectures so far and I really learned a lot from it.
To start off with, Dawson had us do some activities to understand the different views people had about the human body. She had everyone draw what they believed was the human heart as well as another internal part of the human body. She then had us walk around and talk to others about why he/she chose to draw the heart that certain way and where they remembered why they thought of it like that, including the other body member. I found that a lot of people drew their hearts around the same way. As for the extra body part, I mostly saw intestines. I personally drew the skeletal set-up of the spine and rib cage. A lot of other people’s sources on how they got these images were all similar. Either on a social media site or just a memory from high school or previous years.
She then had us get into groups and discuss with each other about if anybody should be given access to information about how the human body works, or if certain areas should be blocked off. My group agreed that everyone should have the choice of seeing how their body works or not. It is not like anyone is forcing them to see it, but at least leave it open in case they get curious or really want to know anything more.
This last little thing we did was my favorite part. The class talked about the human heart a little more, and to make it more interesting, Sierra actually brought a human heart. I was really excited because it was the first time I actually got to see an actual human organ, let alone touch and hold one. It was a lot more muscly than I expected it to be, and the shape I pictured it was around the same, so I was at least not taken aback too much. I tried to study where the certain bulges were along with where the tubes connected to so I could remember it when I draw a heart again. I felt that the interaction with it was way better than referencing back to images. Lastly, Sierra had us act out how the human heart worked with pulses and signals. I ended up being the blood that day because I was the only one wearing red.
As mentioned earlier, I was really captivated by this presentation. It was good material for me for my project, and I got to learn a lot about the heart. I was not planning on doing so earlier, but I might try and draw a heart as part of my project. Not so sure yet, but I think that it would add something to it besides just bodies and skeletons.
I truly enjoyed this presentation and would like to hear more about this topic in the near future. Human anatomy just interests me, and it would be nice for her to come back and talk about another aspect of the body. Preferably the skeletal and muscle build. Anyway, it was quite educational and fun.