One of my classes I'm teaching this semester is an anatomy lab. Since we don't have cadavers for our anatomy lab, I have to get creative about what to fill that time with. I mean, students can only look at pictures of skeletons for so long.
This week we've been studying different types of motion (different ways you flex or extend your feet, hands, arms, neck, and the ways you can rotate them, what you call each of these types of motion, etc.). I didn't really know how to review this in our lab, though, until one thing caught my attention - the Electric Slide.
You see, last week was the skeletal system. The tip of your elbow is called your olecranon process (uh-LECK-ruh-non) and my kids couldn't seem to remember that. I said, "Well, when you do the eLECtric slide, you use your oLECranon!" and, pleased with myself, I waited for the connection to sink in. "Um...what's the electric slide?" Fail.
So today to learn these different types of motion, we learned both the Macarena (heeeeey macarena!) and the Electric Slide in lab. It turns out most of my students know neither of these songs nor their classic dances (I'm still reeling at how people can't know the macarena) so it was quite fun. I made them pause every few minutes to tell their neighbors which movements they were using. Then instead of calling out the moves, I'd call out things like, "Pronate! And supinate! And plantar flex when you jump! I don't see any inversions out there!" It was a memorable day. I know at least one student took a video of it - watch for us on YouTube! Who knows if the students learned anything, but at least I had fun!
Dancing aside, James would be disappointed if I didn't describe my approach to remembering anatomical features when I teach them. But here's my secret: I don't really have an approach. Whatever crosses my mind when I teach them the word becomes my "this is how I like to remember this word" thing. Some of them aren't so great, it turns out (see the olecranon process above). Some, though, I think are pretty good. And some just happen and it's too late to backtrack. James thinks that I'm unnecessarily violent in these on-the-fly mnemonics, but I think that makes them all the more memorable. Here are my three favorite violent ones: the glenoid cavity, the acetabulum, and the trochlea. Let's see if you can remember them based on my "how to remember this word and its location" tips.
Glenoid cavity: this is the socket on your shoulder that your humerus fits into. Your friend Glen is a big sports fan and always sticks his hands up in the air during sporting events. You get annoyed at Glen. (Glen-annoyed = glenoid) and rip his arms off, exposing the glenoid cavity. (James thinks I could've just stopped at "Glen's a sports fan who sticks his hands in the air.")
Acetabulum (ass-uh-TAB-you-lum): This is the socket for your hip; it's the part of the pelvis where the femur leg bone fits. Now, old people are prone to broken hips. However, if you're a young person and take acid (take, say, a tablet of acid - acid-tablet-yum = acetabulum) you might be too drugged up to climb stairs correctly - and then you'll fall down and break your hip. Moral: don't do drugs - particularly not acid - because you WILL break your hip.
Trochlea (troke-lee-uh) - the elbow end of your humerus. It's sort of spool-shaped, and it's what your ulna attaches to. You have an enemy named Leah and because she's evil, you decide to choke her (choke-Leah = trochlea) which means you'll put her in a head lock with your elbow.
I promise not all of my tips are violent. But whatever it takes to learn them, right?
