Out of the dissection room. An experience of outdoor practical sessions for animal anatomy education

Abstract

Practical exercises are an essential component of anatomy education, so anatomy sessions including dissection are essentialfor animal anatomy courses. In Spain there are not difficulties in obtaining farm animal corpses for educational purposes(although some sanitary laws restrict it in certain cases) neither in general ethical constraints. From 2009 we have been doingoutdoor animal dissection for 1st level students of the “Animal Health and Science” degree course of the University of Lleidain Catalunya (Spain) in an industrial corpse destruction plant near the university. There, students practice cow dissection inorder to observe simple anatomical structures, such as superficial muscles and bony points, under “field” conditions. Wethink that these kinds of practical lessons are a cheap and realistic educational model and clearly superior to the classical dissection performed with fixed corpses, even to those done with fresh corpses but under laboratory conditions. In this practice we found educational and technical advantages are more numerous than disadvantages, which are listed in this article

Keywords

• competence
• education
• standards
• teaching methods
• undergraduate

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16. Correspondence to: Dr. Pere M. Parés-Casanova
17. Department of Animal Production, University of Lleida,
18. Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191 (25198 Lleida). Catalonia, Spain
19. Phone: [phone]
20. e-mail: [e-mail]
21. Conflict of interest statement:No conflicts declared.