Day 6 – Anatomy Art

Hello! This week I will be updating the blog while Aubrey is on vacation.

Work began with a meeting. As soon as I got to the office, I met with Dr. Goldina and Carol where we discussed how this research project could actually become a published scientific manuscript through HAPS Educator if we collect quantitative data through our survey. The survey began as a way to get students’ responses to the extra credit project – we wanted quotes to put in our Inspiration tab in the website – however, by adjusting the format and content of some of the questions, it has the potential to be statistical evidence in if, why, and how this extra credit is a valuable teaching tool. From there, we discussed continuing the project for more than one summer, not only to update the website with art created in the past year, but also to continue this research in anatomy’s impact in everyday life. We also discussed the interdisciplinary teamwork occurring between Education, Digital Humanities, and Biology Departments, why the contributions and shared expertise matters to the success of the project, and how the research Aubrey and I do could apply to the general public. What a morning. Because of the time and funding limit of 5 weeks for this project, some of these goals have to wait till next summer. It is not entirely feasible to begin collecting quantitative data to analyze and put in a manuscript while there is still so much art to be cataloged, digitized, and uploaded. However, as we still hope to send out the survey to students, we are already collecting that data, it’s just a matter of leaving it for the next group of students to analyze.

This news excited me, but also seemed a little overwhelming. Suddenly this project has the potential for many weeks of research, scientific study, and making this knowledge accessible to the public. I have to scale back my expectations to what we can accomplish in 5 (now 4) weeks, focusing on “quality, not quantity” as Carol puts it. For now, I am focusing on the tasks as detailed in our Research Log: writing descriptions about the body systems, populating the website with helpful resources for our students and educators, and working with Dr. Goldina on the survey.

Working towards the weekly goal, I finished the Systems Description for the cardiovascular system today and began work on the pulmonary system. This took some research, as I will answer questions like “what it is, what it does, the importance of the system, disease, cool facts, discoveries in the field, and how to take care of it.” Hopefully, I can write in a way that adults and children understand. This goes hand-in-hand with resources for educators and students, whether that is looking up lesson plans, finding youtube channels, coloring books, fun games and websites, etc. I also met with Jen Strain, one of the librarians on campus, to discuss how to cite, credit, and not violate copyright on the website. As we are including articles and links from other websites, we want to make sure we are giving credit where credit is due.

Till tomorrow,

Rebecca Kruse, Class of 2021

Day 6: Resources to add to the website.