EA Students Learn About Anatomy

In the Comparative Anatomy J Term, run by Dr. Bethoney, students have “the opportunity to learn about the general anatomical and physiological characteristics of chosen species with a terminal goal of understanding the differences across species that makes them best adapted for their specific local environment.” Alyssa Sheffy ‘19 elaborated that in class, they have “dissected a worm, a frog and a cricket. Also, we are doing a rat and pig later in the week.” Jess Hao ‘19 also told of how they got to visit a lot of different museums and hospitals. “On Monday we went to the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania. It was really interesting as we got to hear lectures from two different doctors, and then we got to do some surgery simulations. We practiced doing sutures; that was one of my favorite parts! On Tuesday we went to the Museum of Natural Science at Drexel. I really liked seeing all the different exhibits there. All of the trips were really cool.”

Isabella Calastri ‘19 agreed, saying “Going to Children’s Hospital was definitely one of my favorite parts of this J Term.” Hope Biddle ‘19 also said “The trips were definitely my favorite part of this J Term. I really enjoyed getting to travel to the Franklin Institute and other museums.”

Another big part of the Comparative Anatomy J Term is dissection. Many people enjoyed being able to this, but Hope Biddle explained “I’m not a big fan of dissection. But I learned a lot through doing it, and a lot of people do like it. It’s a personal preference. It’s really cool if you like it.” On the other hand, Alyssa Sheffy “loved it. I loved being able to do something that would not regularly do much in school.” On Wednesday, they dissected a human heart. They used their knowledge founded over the past two weeks to identify arteries, vessels and veins. Cam Stapleton ‘19 “Really likes dissection. But, I think having a full year of biology really helped me understand what I was doing. I think it would be confusing to some freshman taking biology because it really is so important to what we have been doing.”

Over the past two weeks of this challenging yet rewarding course, Alyssa Sheffy has come to believe that “This J Term is to understand how animals structure changed over time. This J Term taught me that no matter how different mammals look on the outside, we are all very similar in the inside.”