Human Anatomy and Physiology

Approved by Faculty Senate

University Studies Course Approval

Department or Program: Biology

Course Number: BIOL 212

Number of Credits: 4

Course Title: Human Anatomy and Physiology II

Catalog Description: Human Anatomy and Physiology II - 4 S.H. The second course of a year-long sequence for students in Nursing and Health and Human Performance. Includes structure and function of the endocrine, circulatory, immune, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems; nutrition and metabolism, fluid and ionic balance. Lecture and Laboratory. Offered yearly.

This is an existing course that has previously been approved by A2C2: Yes

This is a new course proposal: No.
(If this is a new course proposal, the WSU Curriculum Approval Form must also be completed as in the process prescribed by WSU Regulation 3-4.)

Department contact Person for this course: Frances R. Ragsdale

Email: fragsdale@winona.edu

A2C2 requires 55 copies of the proposal

The proposed course is designed to satisfy the requirements in (select one area only):

Course Requirements:

A. Basic Skills:
     1. College Reading and Writing ____
     2. Oral Communication ____
     3. Mathematics ____
     4. Physical Development and Wellness ____

B. Arts & Sciences Core:
     1. Humanities ____
     2. Natural Sciences    X
     3. Social Science ____
     4. Fine & Performing Arts ____

C. Unity and Diversity:
     1. Critical Analysis ____
     2. Science and Social Policy ____
     3.a. Global Perspectives ____
        b. Multicultural Perspectives ____
     4.a. Contemporary Citizenship ____
        b. Democratic Institutions ____

D. Flagged Courses
     1. Writing ____
     2. Oral ____
     3.a. Mathematics/Statistics ____
        b. Critical analysis ____

Approval/Disapproval Recommendations

Department Recommendation: Approved Yes Disapproved _____ Date 22 Sept 2000

Dean's Recommendation: Approved Disapproved Date

USS Recommendation: Approved Disapproved Date

A2C2 Recommendation: Approved Disapproved Date

Faculty Senate Recommendation: Approved Disapproved Date

Academic Vice President's Recommendation: Approved Disapproved Date

President's Decision: Approved Disapproved Date

Material Submitted for Course Approval

Overview of BIOL 212 Human Anatomy and Physiology II: BIOL 212 Human Anatomy and Physiology II is designed to the meet the needs of students from several departments including students from the Nursing and the Health and Human Performance departments. This course is a prerequisite for admission into several of the specialized programs within these departments (e.g., nursing and exercise science). In addition, this course meets the needs of any university student who is interested in, and motivated to, exploring bodily structures and functions such that upon completion they will satisfy their Natural Science Core requirement.

Human Anatomy and Physiology 212 focuses almost exclusively on the biological theme that anatomical structure directs body functionality. But in developing this theme students become exposed to numerous other biological themes including, but not limited to the list below.

Cell theory,

Structural hierarchial levels of design,

Homeostasis and mechanisms of control,

Science as a way of knowing and learning.

As a comprehensive overview of how the human body contends with environmental change, Human Anatomy & Physiology 212 examines the structure and function of the whole organism on a system by system basis. The gross anatomical features, from the organ level down to the cellular characteristics, of a system are covered as a foundation for how the system works. The advantage to this approach is that it allows students to compartmentalize their thinking into compact organ groupings, groupings most students have been introduced to earlier in their educational careers (e.g., respiratory system is made up of the accessory respiratory organs, like the nose or trachea, and the lungs in tight association with the circulatory system).

One of the problems with this approach is that the very compartmentalization that facilitates recognition by a student tends to diminish the importance of the control mechanisms that bind this system to most of the other systems in the body. Sometimes students are so involved with the intimate picture of a particular system that the landscape of the well-being of the body is overlooked. An example of this type of thinking might be to focus on the respiratory system. It is dependent on a series of organs designed to promote the movement of air into and out of the lungs. But the actions of the respiratory system do not stop here. Then one must understand the transport of oxygen throughout the circulatory system to the metabolizing tissues and how the individual tissues utilize this oxygen at a cellular level. This is where the emphasis on homeostasis and the control mechanisms comes into play. By illustrating the feedback and regulatory pathways of how one system relies on a second system, or even third system, to respond to an environmental fluctuation, students begin to appreciate the wonders of body structure and function.

Finally, throughout the duration of the course students are encouraged to demonstrate their understanding of how the body works by sharing current news articles with their peers. Students are asked to summarize what they know about a given body system discussed and how the current article changes or develops their understanding of body function. They begin to see and appreciate that they really can understand normal and disease states.

Human Anatomy & Physiology II (BIOL 212) has a required laboratory component. Two of major foci of the laboratory are: A) to practice the process of science and B) to have "hands on" experiences with biological materials and the tools of biologists in ways that reinforce robust learning and concept development.

Course Syllabus Link for BIOL 212 Human Anatomy and Physiology II

Syllabus - Outcomes Grid
Topics:	Outcomes

Lectures			X	X	X	X	X
Laboratories	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Critical Thinking Assignments	X	X	X	X			X
The Forum	X			X		X	X
Exams and Quizzes		X	X				X

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
understand how scientists approach and solve problems in the natural sciences.

This is not one of the major foci of the course, but an introduction to the scientific method is incorporated as part of the critical thinking assignments and is re-emphasized in the physiology laboratory exercises. In the first critical thinking assignment students are introduced to problem-solving methods in an attempt to mold their thinking into a testable pattern. Physiological exercises are designed to have students develop and understand how to approach questions in the natural sciences. One of the best examples of this is the ECG laboratory exercise. The first portion of the class period is spend reviewing the basic design and theory behind the electrocardiogram. The second half of the period allows students to build on their understanding of the basic principle by developing a procedure to address the question: do postural changes affect the ECG trace? Students are then asked to evaluate their proposal and determine whether or not their hypothesis was supported or not supported. Similar activites are found in other aspects of the course, like in the forum/bulletin board setting.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
apply those methods to solve problems that arise in the natural sciences.

This outcome was addressed in the previous question. Assignments address the overall scientific method approach to problem solving and laboratory exercises ask students to employ this approach repeatedly to develop their understanding of physiological processes. The ECG laboratory exercise was previously referred to, but these same basic techniques (brainstorming for hypothesis development, predictions, experimentation, data collection and conclusions) are employed in the hemodynamics, respiratory and digestive physiology laboratory exercises.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
use inductive reasoning, mathematics, or statistics to solve problems in natural science.

Students certainly use mathematics, statistics and inductive reasoning in this biology course. For instance, during the cardiovascular system lectures, Poiseuille's Law relating flow through cylindrical tubes is introduced. This law states that the flow of a substance through a cylindrical tube is proportional to the pressure gradient across the system and the radius of the tube, but flow is inversely proportional to the length of the tube and the viscosity of the substance moving through the tube. Students are asked to graph changes in what happens as each variable is doubled (while all other variables remain the same). We return to this law in the respiratory system such that this law describes how air moves into and out of the lungs. Students are asked to make similar calculations on assignments and exams.
Students use descriptive statistics repeatedly in the laboratory portion to help describe their data and analyze their findings.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
engage in independent and collaborative learning.

Each student is engaged in independent learning as they progress through the course. No pre-test have been given in the past, but a majority of students complete the final exam with a certain degree of competence. Obviously independent learning has occurred.
Most of the laboratory exercises are completed with students breaking into smaller groups (4 students/group). Students are encouraged to share their knowledge and solve their problems in this group setting. This encourages cooperative and collaborative learning.

The Bulletin board/Forum provides an opportunity for students to be able to ask questions and participate in a "virtual group" of their peers. This is providing an additional opportunity for collagorative learning.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
identify, find, and use the tools of information science as it relates to natural science.

This outcome is not readily addressed in this course. Students have, in the past, been asked to utilize resources at this institution to complete a report on a disease state, but that requirement has been dropped in recent years.
Currently, students must participate in the process of finding and utilizing tools of information science by engaging in an exercise where the students pick a disease state (e.g., diabetes) and research information about that state from four different sources: a book, on the Web, from a scientific journal and from some popular newspaper or magazine. Students will then be asked to summarize their findings in a brief report where they critically evaluate the information sources. Copies of the information must also be turned in with the report. Students also utilize new software information programs in both a review capacity for lecture and in the laboratory component. These programs include ADAM interactive anatomy and Interactive Physiology.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
critically evaluate both source and content of scientific information.

This is done specifically in the lecture portion of the course where students are asked to read and evaluate current events in light of their understanding of human anatomy and physiology. Students are also encouraged to discover external sources to suppliment their laboratory findings, but this is a suggestion rather than a requirement. The in-class assignment to research a disease state should provide every student with the opportunity to critically evaluate the source and content of information as it relates to a particular disease state.

Requirements and learning activities that promote students'abilities to:
recognize and correct scientific misconceptions.

All of the activities in this course should help students recognize and then correct their scientific misconceptions. But again this is one of those "should" statements. Most of the students of Human Anatomy and Physiology come into this course with misconceptions due to partial or incomplete information obtained from numerous sources. Some of these misconceptions are easy to identify. For example, students may think that bone, once a person is grown is an innate material in the body, or that the lungs inflate and move the chest cavity during inspiration. And these misconceptions are addressed and corrected in class and laboratory exercises. It is the buried misconceptions that are hard to uncover. Some of the informal assessment practices are designed to identify these hidden misconceptions. For example, a pre-system assessment techniques used in this involves having the students write down on a sheet of paper all of the diseases they are familiar with associated with this body part. The students are asked to describe these diseases. The papers are then collected and reviewed in the course of the lecture.
The Bulletin Board/Forum provides yet another opportunity for the identification and correction of misconceptions. The Forum is particularly useful because it provides students a format that can provide a written answer of longer duration than the verbal response during lecture would be. Further, the Forum is anonymous and there is less fear of being identified as someone asking an easy question.