The gross anatomy lab is a place where students can fall in love with the human body and where anatomical relationships materialize for the first time. The HAPS Anatomical Donor Stewardship Committee (ADS), previously known as the Cadaver Use Committee, is committed to helping HAPS members learn best practices for dissection, gross anatomy lab design, gross anatomy education, and human body donor stewardship. In order to better facilitate the advancement of gross anatomy instructors and labs, our committee has developed the ADS Support Team, which is a network of HAPS members who are experts in different gross anatomy specialties (e.g., dissection, lab design). These experts are then connected with HAPS members who want to learn more about the specific areas. First introduced at the HAPS Portland Annual Conference as the HAPS Dissection Mentorship Initiative, the ADS Support Team is actively recruiting individuals from within the HAPS membership interested in developing these types of coaching and mentorship relationships.
Recently, the ADS hosted several Support Team coaching and mentorship sessions which provided an overview of the goals of the Support Team, the types of coaching and mentorship available, how the coaching and mentorship process works, and the various resources available to those engaged in the program. A recording of one of these sessions is embedded here.
So, what is next? While members of the ADS support team have started to collaborate virtually and through regional dissection workshops, we hope to provide the HAPS general membership with an in-person ADS coaching experience at the upcoming Annual Conference in Albuquerque. During the ADS coaching workshop, titled Dissecting the “Heart” of the ADS Coaching Program, Support Team members will guide participants through a dissection that will explore the anatomy of the heart. Coaches will share dissection and teaching techniques so that prospective Support Team members can discover how the program may benefit them and how they may contribute as well! The workshop will have limited space so please sign up if you would like to join us in the lab at the annual conference!
Are you interested? Use the link below to sign up for the workshop or to be a coach or support team member.
The Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project is midway through its second year. Currently, two groups of community college A&P educators are engaged in the program that aims to both increase the use of active learning strategies in community college A&P classrooms and increase the quantity of education research conducted in two-year schools.
Instructors in the first group (Cohort 1) are currently in their second year of the project and are working with their mentors as writing/research consultants to prepare posters documenting their research. The posters will be presented at the 37th Annual HAPS Conference this May in New Mexico. A list of Cohort 1 members and their research questions can be found on the CAPER website.
Instructors in the second group (Cohort 2) are currently taking the HAPS I course Introduction to Education Research and developing ideas for their own classroom research projects which they will be conducting next year. This group met in person for a day in October 2022 to practice active learning techniques such as cooperative quizzes and guided inquiry learning. This daylong meeting took place in conjunction with the HAPS Regional meeting that was held at Northwestern University for Health and Science in Minneapolis. (Thanks again to conference host Joe Maldoon for both hosting a successful meeting and helping the CAPER team find meeting space.)
CAPER participants and mentors at Northwestern University for Health and Science, Fall 2022
Along with poster presentations at the 2023 annual HAPS conference in New Mexico, the CAPER team will be hosting a couple of workshops where we will be providing more information about the NSF-sponsored CAPER project (IUSE 2111119). We may also be able to share some preliminary research findings on how to best educate students in entry-level A&P courses.
This summer, the CAPER team will be looking for the third set of participants for the program. Participants will need to be available on Tuesday evenings in order to complete a course on Educational Pedagogy in the fall and Education Research in the spring (2024). We also hope to arrange a one-day meeting in late September at the HAPS Regional at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.
If you are looking for more information on the project, please contact us directly or find us at the HAPS meeting in May. You can also submit your name for participation by completing this survey
The Community College Anatomy and Physiology Educational Research Program (CAPER) is back in a new, longer format (IUSE 2111119). CAPER is a multi-layered program focused on evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) and educational research with Community College (CC) Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) instructors. At the foundational level, CC instructors will design classroom research projects to evaluate the impacts of EBIPs on student success and classroom engagement. The CC instructors will also administer questionnaires to their A&P students regarding their attitudes towards EBIPs, their sense of confidence in their academic abilities, and their level of anxiety in the classroom. This data will provide much-needed insight into the efficacy of EBIPs in CC A&P classrooms. Furthermore, the CAPER research team will administer interviews and questionnaires to CC instructors throughout the project to gain insight into changes in instructors’ beliefs and perspectives on teaching. An additional intention of CAPER is to create a long-term community of practice among CC A&P instructors around the US and to study the impacts of communities of practice on the instructors.
This five-year program will include four cohorts of ten to twelve CC A&P instructors. Each cohort will attend a semester-long pedagogy course followed by a semester-long research course. During this year, the A&P instructors develop their individual research plans. The second year is devoted to A&P instructors’ individual data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings. After submitting their manuscripts to a peer review journal,select members of each cohort are invited to become mentors for the incoming cohort, thus continuing their involvement in the CAPER community of practice.
Outputs of this project will include not only traditional dissemination activities such as conference presentations and peer-reviewed manuscripts, but also a network of opinion leaders and mentors from CAPER project alumni. This network will be positioned to champion pedagogical transformation within their institutions and professional networks. CAPER will actively connect CC instructors with professional communities of practice to support ongoing professional development.
Research Team Bios
Murray Jensenis a faculty member in the College of Biological Sciences, at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches human physiology. Jensen has taught high school, community college, technical college, and university students, and now oversees 30 high school teachers in a dual enrollment physiology program. Within the CAPER program Jensen is co-teaching the HAPS I course Teaching Practices for Anatomy and Physiology, and oversees all accounting matters for the project. Jensen’s areas of expertise include cooperative group learning, cooperative quizzes, POGIL, guided inquiry, and classroom management.
Audrey Rose Hyson is a post-doctoral fellow for the CAPER program located at the University of Minnesota. Rose has taught English as a second language content courses to middle school, high school, and university students and has worked as a teacher trainer for English teachers in China. Her recent dissertation work focuses on how young people develop their gender, sexual, and racial identities in educational contexts. Within the CAPER program, Rose is a qualitative researcher. Her areas of expertise include identities and education, professional development and cognitive change, English as a second language, equity, diversity, and inclusion, education research design and qualitative data analysis.
Ron Gerrits is a faculty member at Milwaukee School of Engineering where he teaches mainly graduate courses in physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology. Ron’s role in CAPER is to coordinate the Educational Research course, instruct part of the Teaching Practices course, and contribute to overall coordination, planning and the support of instructor projects. His favorite EBIP is guided inquiry, which he uses extensively in his courses.
Megan Deutschman is a PhD candidate in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy & Development at the University of Minnesota. Megan’s research focuses on the whiteness of the teaching force and the ways that white educators uphold, and potentially confront, racism and white supremacy in their classrooms. Prior to her PhD program, Megan was a K-8 classroom teacher both locally and internationally. Within the CAPER program, Megan works as a qualitative researcher.
Melaney Birdsong Farr is a faculty member at Salt Lake Community college where she teaches Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, and runs the college cadaver program. Melaney was a member of the first cohort of CAPER participants, and she now serves as teaching mentor to this cohort of CAPER participants. She has experience with electronic student response systems, case studies, and Think-Pair-Share in the classroom.
Suzanne Hood is a faculty member in the Psychology department at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Canada. Her role in RE-CAPER is to provide research support to instructors as they design and execute their classroom projects. She is also involved in collecting data from Anatomy and Physiology students about their perceptions of EBIP use in the classroom.
Kerry Hull is a faculty member in the Biology department at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Canada, where she teaches Physiology. She was the previous Editor in Chief of the HAPS Educator, the peer-reviewed journal of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, and thus serves as the writing mentor for RE-CAPER participants. She uses peer instruction, case studies, concept mapping, and guided inquiry in her classroom.
Chasity O’Malley is a faculty member at the Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she teaches physiology to various health professions. She has taught at the community college level, four year private and public universities, and at the graduate level, giving her a wide range of experience. She is a graduate of the original CAPER project. Within the current CAPER project, Chasity oversees the mentors and is heavily involved in recruitment of the participants. She also is co-teaching the HAPS I course Teaching Practices for Anatomy and Physiology and is serving as a mentor for the first cohort. Her favorite EBIPs are case studies and problem based learning. She also has used clicker based modalities a lot throughout her teaching.
Kathy Bell is a faculty member at Salt Lake Community College where she teaches Physiology and Microbiology. She was a member of the second cohort of CAPER participants and is now helping this new cohort as a teaching mentor. She enjoys using cooperative quizzes, case studies, think-pair-share, and guided inquiry in her classes.
Final note: The new NSF grant’s title is Refinement and Expansion of the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Research – or RECAPER. The original grant’s title was Community College Anatomy and Physiology Research Project – or CAPER (NSF #1829157). We are calling the new grant “CAPER,” or “the new CAPER,” but technically it should be called RE-CAPER.
This post is from the CAPER Team, including Chasity O’Malley, Murray Jensen, Kerry Hull, Ron Gerrits, Kyla Ross, Suzanne Hood, and Betsy Ott.
A Few Questions and Answers
Community College educators are busy people, especially in the new normal that we are currently living in and making the best of with COVID-19. One aspect that rings true just as much now as in the recent past is that there rarely is time or opportunity for meaningful professional development. That’s where the Community College Anatomy Physiology Education Research (CAPER 2.0) project comes into play. The goal of the CAPER 2.0 project is to help educators become involved in a small community of dedicated educators who wish to explore different ways to run a classroom in more engaging ways. If funded, and that’s a big “if,” participants will have the opportunity to explore evidence based instructional practices including clickers, small group learning, guided inquiry, and more. We had a good response to our first blog announcing and describing this project, and below we are answering a few frequently asked questions that have arisen from those interested folks. If you are interested in signing-up, fill out this form or contact Chasity O’Malley or Murray Jensen.
When does CAPER begin?
Tentative start is for Fall of 2021 if the grant is funded. The project proposal is due in December, 2020, and we hope to receive word (funded or not funded) from NSF by June or July of 2021.
We aim to have 12 participants in the first cohort (one cohort per year), depending on availability, schedules, and workloads of the interested faculty. Opportunities for those who are unavailable for this first round will have opportunities to join in the 2nd -4th rounds (years) of the projects. There are a lot of opportunities to work with us, so hopefully one of the cohorts will fit into your schedule.
What would the time commitment be for the CAPER program?
When educators are involved in this program, they can still be teaching full time and do the work for this project. They will be busy, but everyone in the first CAPER project has found the workload to be manageable.
We are proposing that instructors are involved for two years in this project.
The first year will involve the HAPS-I courses and research design for the project.
Year two will be implementation of the research project to collect data and to publish the results.
What’s involved with the HAPS-I courses?
Typically, we meet online and then we hope to meet in person for a day or two at a HAPS Regional conference in the Fall. The grant would cover tuition and expenses for the conference.
Class is anticipated to meet 1 time per week, in the evening, for about 2 hours for 2-3 months. Participants will be expected to attend the lectures, do the pre-readings and assignments, and participate in discussions during class.
Participants from CAPER 1.0 found the workload manageable for the course, but does indeed require time and effort to complete.
There will be two 1-credit classes that will both be completed in one semester. The first class is titled Teaching Practices for Anatomy and Physiology and will cover basic learning theories, such as constructivism, and examine how those theories fit into different teaching strategies, such as cooperative group work, guided inquiry learning, and other Evidenced Based Instructional Methods (EBIPs). The second class is titled Introduction to Educational Research Methods and will examine how education researchers collect and interpret data, and also learn how to design a classroom research project. The final project of the second class will be a research proposal, to examine the effectiveness of an EBIP of your choosing, that you will then implement the following semesters.
How are research topics chosen? Are the projects individual or group projects?
Participants get to pick their own topic for their classroom research project. Some instructors might do “clickers” and others might do “guided inquiry.” A wide range of options exist. We will provide help in the decision-making process, and with the research design, but we want instructors to pick their own topics. What instructional practice do you wish to explore?
There will be two products completed by each participant. First, a poster that will be presented at an annual HAPS Conference. Posters will be completed on an individual basis, but you will have help from mentors and education research experts. Second will be a research paper documenting your results that will be submitted to The HAPS Educator, or other peer reviewed journal. The papers might be individual, or might involve a small group of participants who have similar research projects. Keep in mind that mentors will help with writing, research design, statistics, and other parts of the publication process.
What does the grant provide for participants? In addition to extensive support from the CAPER grant personnel, the grant will provide the following:
Tuition and supplies for the two, 1-credit, HAPS-I courses.
Stipends to cover food, registration, accommodation, and travel to attend three conferences over the 2 year period: a Fall HAPS regional conference in year 1, the SABER West conference in January of Year 1, and the HAPS National Conference in Year 2. Participants will have to pay these expenses up front and will receive the stipend after the conference.
An additional small stipend for completing the program.
What is needed from me at this time?
Your interest is all we need at this time. As we get closer to submission, we will ask for a letter of support from you and a school administrator. (Administrative support is vital for success in this project).
Finding out the name of the IRB contact at your institution would be very helpful at this time as well. We will have quite a bit of work to do with your school’s IRB administrative committee, but we will be providing considerable help with that process.
Is this opportunity open to K-12 instructors? At this time, we are focusing only on two-year community, or technical, college Anatomy and Physiology instructors.
Is this opportunity open to adjuncts? Yes, adjunct instructors are welcome to become involved. This could be a wonderful opportunity for adjuncts looking to attain full time employment to be able to demonstrate their commitment to improving their teaching craft and the experience for the students. This would look GREAT on a CV for employment. However, adjuncts must have administrative support from a college.
I still have questions that weren’t covered here. Who do I contact?
The HAPS Annual Conference is one of the best parts of being a HAPS member. Every year we get to meet up, exchange ideas, learn from each other, and have a ton of fun. Even though we will not meet in person this year, HAPS is still hosting its annual conference online for all members! This is the first of a series of blogs that will fill you in on the virtual conference happenings.
Schedule of Events
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, May 19 to 21 – Update Speakers Thursday, May 21 4:00 PM EDT – HAPS Exam Program Town Hall Friday, May 22 8:00 to 8:00 PM EDT – Welcome Reception hosted by McGraw-Hill Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24 – Exhibitor Demonstrations Tuesday, May 26 12:00 to 1:00 PM EDT – General Membership Extravaganza Tuesday, May 26 1:00 – 1:30 PM EDT – Regional Breakout Groups Wednesday, May 27 4:00 to 5:00 PM EDT – After Party Town Hall
Respond to a daily question in the Facebook group about teaching and learning using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Ask a question about the daily workshops or any A&P questions using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS membership is valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS conferences are valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
“Extra points” for points or comments using videos and photos!
Tag HAPSofficial in your posts
Post a photo or video of yourself watching the sessions or your screen using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Twitter:
Live Twitter chats on update speakers at 8:00 PM EDT May 19th-21st
#HAPS2020Chat
– Follow the HAPS twitter account
– Login around 8:00 PM EDT and search #HAPS2020Chat
– We’ll be posting questions and discussing the recorded update speakers talks each day. Come post your thoughts!
Post a photo or video of yourself watching the sessions using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS membership is valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS conference are valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Search for #HAPS2020 and comment on other members’ posts
Tag @HumanAandPSoc
Instagram:
Post a photo or video of yourself watching the sessions or your screen using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS membership is valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Post a video explaining why you think HAPS conferences are valuable using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Search for #HAPS2020 and comment on other members’ posts
Tag @humananatomyphysiologysociety in your posts
LinkedIn Group:
Respond to a daily question in the LinkedIn group regarding higher education leadership using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Ask a question about the daily workshops or any A&P questions using the hashtag #HAPS2020
“Extra points” for points or comments using videos or photos
Post a photo or video of yourself watching the sessions or your screen using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Facebook Page:
Respond to a daily question on the Facebook page about teaching and learning using the hashtag #HAPS2020
Comment on posts on the Facebook page
Tag HAPSofficial in your posts
Post a photo or video of yourself watching the sessions or your screen using the hashtag #HAPS 2020
In addition to the Supported Awards that we covered in our previous post, there are four additional awards administered by the HAPS Awards & Scholarships Committee. These four awards fall into the category of HAPS Awards because they are funded by the HAPS organization using money donated by HAPS members. Each award targets a specific category of HAPS members to help them attend the HAPS Annual Conference in May 2020.
1 – The Robert B. Anthony Travel Award is for full-time faculty during their first five years of teaching.
2 – The Full-Time Faculty Travel Award is for full-time faculty who have taught for more than five years.
3 – The Contingent Faculty TravelAward is for contingent faculty (see link for how HAPS defines “contingent” faculty).
4 – The Student/Postdoc Travel Award has been expanded this year to include undergraduates as well as graduate students and postdocs.
All four awards pay the registration fee for the 2020 HAPS Annual Conference plus $400 to help with travel expenses to attend the conference
The final deadline to submit your application and one letter of recommendation is January 3, 2020.
More details about the awards and access to award applications can be found on the HAPS website:
If you could use some financial assistance to travel to the 2020 HAPS Annual Conference in Ottawa, consider applying for an award administered by the HAPS Awards & Scholarships (A&S) Committee. Seven total awards are offered this year. This post details the Supported Awards which are funded by a vendor or an individual donor.
The ADInstruments Sam Drogo New Technology in the Classroom Award award encourages the innovative use of technology to engage undergraduates in human anatomy and physiology. The winner receives $500 to attend the HAPS Annual Conference.
The Gail Jenkins Teaching and Mentoring Award is for a HAPS member who demonstrates use of engaging learning activities to help students truly understand and retain Anatomy and Physiology with kinesthetic and active learning strategies and inexpensive everyday props. The award also recognizes those who mentor other instructors to incorporate active learning in their teaching to benefit more students. The winner will receive $1000 cash award provided by Wiley and will also have their registration waived for the HAPS Annual Conference in May 2020.
The John Martin Second-Timer Award is a new award this year. It is for HAPS members who have attended only one previous HAPS Annual Conference (does not matter which year, as long as it was an annual conference) and are in need of some financial assistance to attend this year’s annual conference as a Second Timer. The winner will receive $500 to use toward attending the HAPS Annual Conference. Applicants must be full-time or contingent college/university faculty or full-time high school faculty, currently teaching anatomy & physiology with at least part of the teaching load being face-to-face, as opposed to totally online teaching.
The final deadline to submit your application and one letter of recommendation is January 3, 2020.
More details about the awards and access to award applications can be found on the HAPS website:
I hated pep-rallies in high school and I have always struggled with having a sense of team spirit. In fact, at Christmas time I find that I tend to have more in common with the Grinch than Old Saint Nick, so the fact that I find myself excited enough to write a blog about something is not only out of the ordinary, it’s stranger than green eggs and ham!
As one can imagine, I have surprised myself over the last four years at how I have become such an advocate (dare I say cheerleader) for the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society with both university administration and my fellow anatomy colleagues. It has been exciting to interact with the diverse population of individuals who teach A&P. Our educational backgrounds vary just as much as our personalities and teaching styles. In contrast to other professional organizations that I participate in, I have found that HAPS creates a uniquely inclusive environment in which professionals from a range of institutions and at all stages of their career can share their ideas and learn from conference speakers, workshops, and online forums. Furthermore, like the Grinch, I find my heart growing three sizes when I think of how our leadership team is constantly looking for new ways to work with the different HAPS committees in order to find how we can help one another become better scientists and educators.
With the intention to assist with this initiative, the HAPS Cadaver Use Committee has recognized a problem faced by a significant population of HAPS members. We have found that many of our members have very little or sometimes no cadaver dissection experience. In response to the perceived need and interest amongst the HAPS membership, the Cadaver Use Committee is developing a human cadaver dissection mentorship program. Specifically, we are soliciting member interest and need for this program. Additionally, we are looking to identify individuals that can serve as mentors. The role of the mentor will be better defined as we continue to collect information from HAPS members through virtual town-hall meetings and a survey to determine interest by location, limiting factors, cost, and the type of mentorship relationship that will provide the most value added for participants. Long-term, we would like this dissection mentorship program to fulfill the pillars of a faculty’s academic career. Our goal is to develop a mentorship program that will not only enrich the quality of teaching, but also bolster faculty promotion, tenure, and service.
With all that being said, I would like to say I am grateful for HAPS and proud of this initiative. I am excited to share my lab and my dissection experience with my colleagues. I may not be ready to hold hands and sing “Welcome Christmas” with all the Who’s in Whoville, but I can’t wait to hear from others in my region and the greater HAPS community and learn what they think about our new program and how they might like to participate. Please pay special attention to any upcoming emails regarding the human dissection mentorship program. We would love to hear from you at any of our upcoming town hall meetings or surveys!
Kelsey Stevens is the Anatomy Lab Manager and an Instructor for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. Her specialties include Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Embryology. She has been a member of the HAPS Cadaver Use Committee since 2016.
Two great professional societies — One great regional conference!
Much like the Kentucky Derby packs a lot of excitement in two short minutes of horse racing, we are going to be packing a ton of Anatomy and Physiology into one fabulous conference day and you can bet you won’t want to miss it! The American Association for Clinical Anatomists (AACA) and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) invite YOU to attend our first ever Joint AACA/HAPS Regional Conference at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY (home of the Kentucky Derby!) on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Great speakers, workshops, posters, and even multiple cadaver lab experiences await you. The last day to register at the Early Bird registration rate and submit a workshop or poster proposal is March 1, 2019.
How did this joint venture get started? In the fall of 2015, I moved from Houston, TX to Louisville, KY and I met Dr. David Porta in the Biology Department at Bellarmine University. He was teaching Gross Anatomy and I was teaching Vertebrate Physiology and we both were teaching Human Anatomy & Physiology. As David showed me where lab supplies were and we small talked, we discovered we both served on the boards of professional societies, AACA for him and HAPS for me. Because we obviously weren’t busy enough and we thought there would be some synergy between the interests of AACA and HAPS, we hatched an idea to co-host a regional meeting. We had round table discussions with a few more anatomists from Bellarmine and the University of Louisville and we outlined what we think will be a great conference for instructors of Anatomy and Physiology. Here’s a glimpse of the platform presentations and cadaver workshop opportunities.
Dr. Jeffrey Petruska will be presenting research on neural connectivity recently discovered by using modern molecular techniques combined with old school classical neurophysiology and gross anatomy observations. My co-host Dr. David Porta will be presenting his research on the biomechanical techniques used to analyze different types of bone fractures and how this data has been used as legal evidence in hit-and-run as well as malpractice cases. David will offer coordinating workshops in the cadaver lab where participants will extract bone, mount it on the fracturing apparatus, and then analyze the fragments.
Hope to see you in Louisville!
Rachel Hopp
Conference Co-Host Rachel Hopp, PhD, Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Southern Regional Director of HAPS
Conference Co-Host and Update Speaker David Porta, PhD, Department of Biology, Bellarmine University, Past Program Secretary of AACA
Update Speaker Jeffrey Petruska, PhD, Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology, Member of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, University of Louisville School of Medicine
Last fall, the HAPS Board approved a new task force on Diversity and Inclusion Goals (DIG). The purpose of DIG is to develop best practices, resources, and professional development for inclusive education in anatomy and physiology (A&P). The endgame is transformation of ourselves, where we create the best learning environment for all the learners we serve.
Why should you “DIG” it?
The mission of HAPS is to promote excellence in the teaching of A&P. On a professional level, educators need to understand diversity, inclusivity, and equity. This allows us to competently talk to and teach our students as well as create a classroom environment conducive to learning for all. In addition, we must adapt our approach in and out of the classroom to the increasing diversity of identity groups in our student populations. These identities include gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic class, religion, ability, preparation level, ancestry, and fluency in English, and any one of these identities can be barriers to learning for our students, and impact us as educators.
HAPS is poised to be a leader in generating materials to explore diversity content within anatomy and physiology courses as well as create inclusive classroom environments. Our classrooms are spaces where diversity conversations are deeply relevant, and there remains a critical need for exploring diversity within the context of science and connecting science to society. To be culturally competent within their field, students must be exposed to diverse viewpoints and alternative ways of thinking. Engaging others who hold different ideas and experiences raises awareness of their own identities and opens new approaches to problem solving.As society changes, new questions arise in the classroom that are relevant to A&P, such as the application of big data to health records, how assisted reproductive technologies should be used, controversies over animal dissection, and many others. Additionally, HAPS members train future health providers and scientists, putting us in the unique position to shape healthcare and biomedical science.
Want to “DIG” into the work?
Here are some ways for you to get involved:
Consider presenting aworkshop at the Annual Meeting! We would love to see how HAPS members create inclusive and diverse classrooms and curricula. What does an inclusive A&P class look like? How does a professor convey that they are committed to student safety and success regardless of the student’s identities? What types of content or activities provide students with experiences that help them flourish? What advice do you have on handling mistakes in the classroom gracefully? How do you accommodate students with disabilities in your lecture or labs? What role do textbook authors and vendors play in shaping inclusive curricula?
Take the upcoming Diversity and Inclusion Membership Survey! With a release date in May 2019, DIG hopes to gather membership data that will tell us who we are as an organization and identify needs in diversity issues.
Look for our information table, poster, and workshop at the 2019 Annual Meeting. We’d love to chat with you! Or feel free to contact meif you’d like to learn more.
Kathy Burleson is a Senior Lecturer at Hamline University, where she teaches in the Biology, Exercise Science, and Public Health programs. She is the lead of the HAPS Diversity and Inclusion Goals Task Force.
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