Please remember that we have an onsite meeting this week, beginning at 3:30 on Wednesday. You'll be taking Lecture Exam 1, and then you'll have open lab time afterwards. As with previous exams, we’ll start in the lab across the hall for the test and then open lab will be back in our regular room.

See you on Wednesday!

Well, this is it! This is the last week of new material, and probably the shortest week of material. It covers the autonomic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that controls involuntary body activities. Once you finish the autonomic nervous system, you'll be ready to begin A&P2. Many of the body systems in A&P2 – the endocrine, the cardiovascular, the respiratory, and the digestive, for example – are tightly integrated with the ANS.

When we meet onsite on Wednesday, we'll have Lecture Exam 3, which covers Weeks 11, 12, and the first half of Week 13 (spinal cord only). Afterwards, we'll have open lab time with slides and models.

Next week, there will be no new material, so that you can catch up, focus on the Lab Exam, and get ready for the final. The Lab Exam is next week, and the Histology Notebooks are due when you finish – no exceptions! You'll get them back when you take the final.

That's it for now; see you on Wednesday.

Folks --

Please remember that we will be having Lecture Exam 3 on Wednesday of next week (Week 14). This exam covers material from Weeks 11, 12, and part of 13 (up through & including the spinal cord only).

In the past, there has been some confusion regarding what is and what is not fair game, especially with regard to where I “draw the line” between the spinal cord and the PNS. In reality, we only cover two aspects of the spinal cord in this class. First, we cover the gross anatomy of the spinal cord (Marieb Fig. 12.29a). The rest of the material is simply cross-sectional anatomy and how nerve impulses are routed to and from the spinal cord. This was featured in a Lecture Art file that you can see here. I consider both of those topics (gross anatomy & pathway to and from cord) fair game for the exam. I realize that the pathway information is covered again in the section on reflex activity in the PNS, but we see that info here (in the section on the spinal cord) first.

Once the spinal nerve leaving the vertebral cavity splits into the dorsal ramus, ventral ramus and rami communicantes, that’s PNS material and will NOT be covered.

Other little bits of exam info:

The route of CSF circulation through the central nervous system is NOT on the lecture exam. It will be covered on Lab Exam 2, though.

Some of the material in the figures in Ch. 11 (*cough*, *cough*, *cough*) will come in handy. ;-)

This week's material is relatively short and covers the spinal cord from Ch. 12, as well as the beginning part of Ch. 13 on the peripheral nervous system.

The big event this week is our last lab. On Wednesday, we'll do Lab 10 and Lab 11. Lab 10 will introduce you to some nervous system histology and the sheep brain. We'll look at three slides, and these will be the last slides for your notebook. I'll demo the sheep brain dissection, and then you'll work on it yourselves.

We'll take a short break, and then work on Lab 11. Lab 11 is dedicated to the special senses of vision and hearing. Unfortunately, time constraints don't let us cover the senses in any great detail, and that's too bad; there's some really interesting biology there. I'll lecture on the basic structures and functions of the eye and ear, and then we'll do the cow eye dissection. This is a really nice dissection that I really like to do because it's relatively easy to see all of the parts.

Next week (Apr 29), we’ll have an onsite meeting that will have three purposes: We'll have Lecture Exam 3. This will cover material from Weeks 11, 12, and the spinal cord only from Week 13. The remainder of the Week 13 material (the PNS) and the Week 14 material will appear on the Final Exam. As before, we'll take the exam across the hall, and then you'll have open lab time in our regular room to work on slides, muscles, and/or models.

In two weeks (May 6), we'll have Lab Exam 2. It will cover the muscles, muscle histology, nervous system histology, CNS, PNS, and special senses. Your Histology Notebooks are due by the end of the lab exam. No extensions! I'll have them back for you when you take the final.

I'll be posting info about the Final Exam towards the end of this week. Until then, send me any questions you have.

Well, now we’re really coming down to it!

There are only three weeks of new material left, and it all deals with the details of the nervous system. This week, it’s the brain. Of all of the topics that we cover in A&P, the brain remains the most mysterious. I really try to steer you towards the definites, although you’re welcome to explore the more nebulous material, if you wish.

For those of you taking face-to-face classes, please be advised that next Tuesday (4/21) is Registration Day for Spring 2009 classes. There are no classes on this day. This is when you meet with your advisor and discuss your tentative schedule for next semester. You should drop by your advisor's office and sign up for a meeting time for next Tuesday. When you arrive for your meeting, bring a list of classes that you plan on taking in the fall. If you have any questions, drop me an e-mail and I'll give you a hand.

That's it for now.

Please remember that we have an onsite meeting this week, beginning at 3:30 on Wednesday. You'll be taking Lecture Exam 2, and then we'll do two labs (Labs 7 & 8) dedicated to muscle afterwards. Consult the Week 11 page to see what we're doing and what's due.

See you on Wednesday!

P.S. Lecture Exam 2 covers material from Weeks 7, 8, 9, and 10 (Articulations and Muscle).

Can you believe it's already here?!?

Essentially, we’re coming down to the wire now, and I personally consider this last real BIG week’s worth of material. This week begins the nervous system with an introduction to how neurons and their supporting cells work. Luckily, the hardest part of this material (in my opinion) is the concept of the action potential, which we covered back on Week 9.
 
How it shakes down from here:

• This week: Introduction to Nervous Tissue (Ch. 11)
• Next week: CNS: The Brain (part of Ch. 12)
• Week 13: CNS: The Spinal Cord (remainder of Ch. 12); PNS: Cranial & Spinal Nerves (part of Ch. 13)
• Week 14: Autonomic Nervous System (introduction to Ch. 14; this is pretty short)
• Week 15: No new material; catch up and review for Final Exam

As you can see, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll find that, once Week 11 is finished, there will be less material for the following weeks. This is when you benefit from the typical end-of-semester chaos that occurs with the day classes. As the semester winds down, class time is swallowed up by days off (such as Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks) and scheduling for the spring semester. In order to keep you in line with what the day classes are covering, your material will begin to get shorter and shorter.
 
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. As you know, this Wednesday is an onsite meeting day that will be dedicated to Lecture Exam 2 as well as Labs 7 & 8 (both deal with muscle). We’ll start in our lab where I’ll show you the lab materials. We’ll then go across the hall to the “real” A&P lab and take the exam. As you finish the exam, you can just return back to “our” lab and work. Probably the most important aspect to Wednesday’s lab is beginning to learn the skeletal muscles for Lab Exam 2. Please do not rush out without working with the muscle models! You can make the most efficient use of your time on Wednesday if you look over the Lab 8 materials before coming to lab!
 
In addition, you have two assignments due on Wednesday:

• System Assignment for Muscle
• Physio Ex simulation worksheet

Please make sure I get them before you take off.
 
That’s it for now. See you on Wednesday.