Anatomy and Physiology

Anatomy and Physiology is the study of the anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) of the human body. The first semester of this course is designed as interactive lectures and PowerPoint presentations to provide the knowledge and background students will need for understanding what they are viewing when we start dissecting.

The second semester is primarily focused on dissecting. For a number of reasons, we dissect cats during this semester. My students always want to know, "Why cats?" They would much prefer to dissect something less appealing like rats and other varmints. The reasons we have chosen cats include: 1) Cats are readily available. A fact of life is that humans allow cats to breed unchecked, leading to overpopulation. Cats are picked up as strays and unfortunately their lives are ended at kill shelters. Science supply companies purchase these cats so that we can learn. I tell my students that we should be grateful that these cats at least serve a higher purpose than simply being discarded. 2) Cat anatomy is similar in many respects to the human body. We study these similarities to learn about our own bodies. 3) Cat size is manageable. They are large enough for students to see the structures we are studying and small enough to easily store and preserve for a semester.