Mastering the Lab in Human Anatomy

The Stuart Hall science elective Human Anatomy is a deep dive into how our bodies work. It's also an opportunity for students in grades 10–12 to grow their hands-on laboratory skills. They've even butchered chicken thighs to practice the tools and techniques of dissection!

In addition to providing a large volume of content about the body's systems, teacher Sara Gum says the course targets mastery of several transferrable skills: explaining concepts, modeling, and lab skills like dissection and using microscopes.

"The material and content change, but the skills do not. No matter if we're in the cardiovascular unit, respiratory unit, or the digestive unit, the skills can transfer," she says.

Students started the class by looking at a brain, kidney, and heart, trying to identify each organ, what animal it came from, and its general function. Many days, you can see students using microscopes to examine tissues and make reports about what they observe.

"The most informative thing we have done in Human Anatomy has been going over the different types of tissues in the human body," says student Liam '27. "It really made everything much clearer about what the human body is composed of and how we group it. You're taught early on that the human body is made of cells, but taking this class and learning about different types of tissues really clarified how cells are composed together in tissues to form larger organic structures, like organs."

Soon, students will build on what they've learned so far to perform dissections, further deepening their understanding of the systems that make the body work. "While I genuinely enjoy the content in anatomy class, Ms. Gum makes it better every step of the way. From hands-on dissection to interactive activities, we look forward to her class and leave it with a well-rounded understanding of the content," Maddie '26 says.