Photo Licensed From Shutterstock.com Tips for Getting Organized1) Read your course syllabus carefully. Keep a copy of it handy throughout the semester.
There is a lot of important information there that will make much more sense to you as the course proceeds – information that you will not remember if you do not keep it handy.For more details about what to look for in your syllabus click on2) Gather up your courage and interview your instructor. Do it early in the semester well before your first midterm exam. Understanding your instructor’s teaching method and what aspects of the subject he/she feels are most important will provide you with a head start on getting a good grade in Anatomy and Physiology.You can find advice on how to do this by reading3) After the first or second lecture in your course, show your class notes to your instructor. Ask if you have captured the major points. If not, ask your instructor for help in figuring out how to take better notes.
Listen carefully to what you are told – even if you do not agree. Repeat back to your instructor what you think you heard to confirm that you got it correctly.You will find more about taking good class notes at.4) Do not let what you think you know about anatomy and physiology get in the way of the concepts your instructor is teaching. Living in a connected modern world, you already have information in your brain about human anatomy and physiology.
Sep 22, 2014 Study figure drawing, and compensate any lack you have about anatomy: – I find it impossible to draw the human body correctly without excessively observing it at the very least. Knowing some anatomy is a must to make realistic drawings. Even if you draw realistic characters like Anime or Comics, you still need to get to that.
Some of it may be very accurate information. Some of it may have given you false impressions.Consider what you think you already know and cross check your facts with your textbook – not Google. You will be tested for knowledge as it is presented in your anatomy and physiology textbook.For more information about how to do this read Tips for Studying Anatomy5) The first thing to do is to focus upon the words that describe orientation and direction in space of body parts.Be particularly careful not to confuse right and left. Our use of computers has taught us some habits. We right and left justify material on the computer screen without thinking much about it – the reference always being our own right and left side. However, in anatomy you need to always think in terms of the specimen’s right and left side.For more about the importance of the terms describing human body orientation read. Click.6) Listen to yourself correctly pronouncing anatomical names.
Most brain structures dedicated to processing of auditory signals are superb at discerning pitch of the human voice and assigning meaning to it.If English is not your primary language and you are taking an anatomy and physiology course with an English speaking instructor, Google has a to help you at. There you can enter the scientific term from your anatomy and physiology textbook and then have it translated into virtually any language in the world.Under each word is a microphone icon that you can click to hear the word in both languages. Practice saying the words and listen to your own voice.
For more on this subject get the of my new book Click the title.You may also find the posts “ helpful. Click.7) Break long anatomic names into smaller parts to extract meaning.
Scientists love to make up long words from a combination of small words.Originally the smaller words used in anatomy and physiology were Roman Latin and Greek terms. The foreign words named objects. Early anatomists established the practice of using the meaning of the Latin and Greek words to describe newly observed body parts.For example, one small Greek word that means hollow vessel, cyte, is often used as the last part of the name of various cell types. The first part of the cell name describes the location or appearance of the cell.
Examples include astrocytes that are shaped like stars, leukocytes that are white blood cells, melanocytes that are cell containing the pigment melanin, and osteocytes that are bone cells. The list of -cytes in anatomy is very long.How anatomists string together descriptive words to name muscles is further described in.Tips for Studying Physiology8) Memorizing the facts of physiology often leads to poor exam grades. There is an easier way to master this science. Start by examining the way in which anatomic systems work together to maintain necessary set points, that is homeostasis. Details of this idea can be found at my post “ by clicking.Work at understanding what is meant by homeostasis. Briefly, every aspect of physiology is directed toward the body’s maintenance of an optimal set of working conditions – blood volume, blood pressure, neutral blood pH, precise body fluid composition, and so forth.
Physiologists call this process of keeping body conditions in the correct range maintaining homeostasis.Maintaining homeostasis requires a network of Sensors that signal when a property of the system strays out of the desired range. Sensors send signals to Responders. Responders bring the system back to the desired condition. Individual sets of Sensors and Responders are called Feedback Loops.Part of the process of homeostasis is the body’s ability to replace its parts. Check out the page titled “” by clicking.9) The principle of physiological cause and effect is something instructors struggle to teach and students struggle to learn. Yet, this concept forms the foundation of modern medical practice.Cause is defined as a force that produces an effect. Physiological Cause may be a force from the environment, or something deviating from the norm within the body, that grossly disrupts homeostasis.
For example, the disruption may be acquiring an infection, being chased by a tiger, being shot, experiencing a heart attack, or falling off a ladder.Physiological Effect refers to the co-operative response of the body’s many feedback loops to neutralize the disruption in ways most likely to insure survival of the person. Examples of mechanisms underlying the physiological effect of trauma can be found by opening your computer browser and typing “physiological response to X” in the search box. Replace “X” with words such as alkalosis, or trauma, or heart attack, or threat and hit “enter”. Next you will see long descriptions of what is known about the response of the body’s multiple feedback loops to that insult.There is no need to memorize the complex responses you find – for right now just observe how many systems become involved when homeostasis is disturbed by a large force.An example of how cause and effect works can also be found at my post. Click.10) Become aware that physiology is about communication between body compartments.
And, do not expect physiological compartments to have boundaries like rooms in a house. In reality physiological compartments are often amorphous – that is without structure.The two largest compartments that control much of physiological chemistry are the extracellular fluid compartment and the intracellular fluid compartment. At first glance these two compartments appear quite boring. Do not be fooled by that. Much of physiology in each organ system is dictated by communication between the two major fluid compartments.More details about the importance of communication between body compartments can be found on the pages and and the post. Bonus TipsIf you have read this far, you may also like to get my and its attached e-course with many more tips on how to manage exams so that you score high.
Get it now by.You will be asked to confirm that you wish to be on my email list to access the blueprint and e-course. This second step is to comply with the privacy regulations required by most countries. We never give your email to anyone else and it is stored on a secure server. You may read ourI hope you find these study tips helpful.
If you do, please share them with your friends on social media by clicking on one of the icons below. Best of luck in your study of Anatomy and Physiology. Do you have questions?Please put your questions in the comment box or send me an email at. I read and reply to all comments and email.If you find these tips helpful, please share them with your fellow students or send it to your favorite social media by clicking one of the buttons below.Margaret Thompson Reece PhD, physiologist, former Senior Scientist and Laboratory Director at academic medical centers in California, New York and Massachusetts and CSO at Serometrix LLC is now CEO at Reece Biomedical Consulting LLC.Dr.
Reece is passionate about helping students, online and in person, pursue careers in life sciences. Her books “Physiology: Custom-Designed Chemistry”, “Inside the Closed World of the Brain”, the workbook companion to her online course, and “Busy Student’s Anatomy & Physiology Study Journal” are written for those new to life science. More about her books is available at.Dr. Reece offers a free 30 minute “how-to-get-started” phone conference to students struggling with human anatomy and physiology. Schedule an appointment by email at.
I am not sure where you are in your physiology course right now. Send me an email at and we can discuss where you are having specific problems more fully. In general, physiology is regulated by 3 master control systems that interact with each other – the nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the endocrine system. When something changes in one of these master systems the other two must respond in some way because they are tightly linked with one another.
This makes physiology harder to study than anatomy where each system such as bones and muscles is studied separately. That is a lot to be studying all at once.
My suggestions are: for anatomy study the largest muscles well including their nerves and blood vessels, for biochemistry focus on the metabolic pathways for glucose, aerobic and anaerobic, and for lipids including the citric acid cycle, for physiology remember everything depends upon the interaction of the 3 master controllers, nervous, cardiovascular and endocrine system. Each organ system has some sort of regulation by the nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the endocrine system. Nervous effects will be very fast, cardiovascular moment to moment and endocrine effects will be long term. Review system by system and think about how each master controller contributes to its function. Best of luck with your studies and exams.
Please write again to tell me how it goes. Lauren you can find my free strategy blueprint for A&P at. It comes with a free email course over 3 weeks with information about how to approach exams and links to other helpful material I have found on the web.
Because physiology taught in an order that follows the best way to teach anatomy in A&P courses, it is difficult for students. I offer an online course 30-Day Challenge: Craft Your Plan for Learning Physiology where students learn how human physiology is organized and how to best learn it in an A&P course setting. You can find more about that at.
Do not try to learn everything in your textbook. Follow you instructor’s lead. If there is a lecture on a topic, read about that topic in your text. If you do not get the idea, go to your instructor’s office hours for help. Teacher’s test what they talk about with students. If you can form a study group with other students, that is always a big help. It gives you a chance to hear the material you are reading as you try to explain it to each other.
The brain remembers better what it hears than what it reads. Send me an email if you get stuck at.
In this first installment of my ongoing series of 'How to Draw' Instructables, I will show you how to create real-looking three dimensional shapes.Linear Perspective is the most basic form of perspective in which all objects with faces parallel to the horizon, appear to converge in the distance at a single point on the horizon (the vanishing point).To learn what on Earth this possibly means, grab yourself:-.and dare follow me to the next step. Newsprint is fine to start. As you get better, you will want to invest in some quality drawing paper.(Also note that some of the links on this page contain Amazon affiliate links. This does not change the price of any of the items for sale.
However, I earn a small commission if you click on any of those links and buy anything. I reinvest this money into materials and tools for future projects. If you would like an alternate suggestion for a supplier of any of the parts, please let me know.). If you were to stand on a plane and look out into the distance, the imaginary line that demarcates between the Earth and the sky is considered the horizon. For argument's sake, the horizon is a straight line (even though in actual space it is slightly curved). Now, if you were to stare straight ahead at the horizon, the point on the horizon directly in front of you would be considered the vanishing point. It's called the vanishing point since all objects seem to vanish towards it as they go back into the distance.
One-point perspective is marked by the fact that all objects seem to converge towards one solitary point on the horizon. In order for all objects to converge at a single point, their closest face has to appear to be parallel to horizon.
In other words, if there was a cube between you and the horizon, the face of the cube closest to you would have two horizontal lines parallel to the horizon. In fact, everything viewed in this perspective must have horizontal lines parallel to the horizon. If horizontal lines are no longer parallel, you have just gained a whole new perspective (but lets not worry about that for now). Turn your paper sideways (landscape) and measure 9' up on each side and make a mark. Connect both marks with a line. You should have just successfully bisected your paper.
Next, you want to find the midpoint on the sheet of paper. The easiest way to find the midpoint is to connect each opposite corner on the sheet of paper. Where the two lines converge is the center point (the center point of any parallelogram - rectangle, square - can be found this way). Your center point should fall right in the center of the line you have just drawn.
Enlarge this point and label it V.P. For vanishing point. Erase the diagonal lines, but leave the horizontal line since that is now your horizon. You should be now left with a horizon with a vanishing point centered on it.
The vanishing point must always be located on the horizon! Right now you should have a two-dimensional box. To make this book look three-dimensional, it has to be appear to have depth. And of course, anything with depth must appear to travel back towards the vanishing point.
To give your box depth trace the top and bottom right-edges back towards the vanishing point (where they should converge). You now have a mighty long box.
You're probably going to want a box that looks a little more reasonable. On one the lines you just drew, pick a point that is about half-way between the original square and the vanishing point. Make a small mark and measure how far it is from the left edge of the paper. Once you know the distance, move your ruler vertically up or down from this point and make another dot. Connect these two dots and extend the vertical line to fully intersects diagonal lines that you have just drawn.
You should be left with something that resembles a three-dimensional box. Erase all lines until you are left with just a box sitting on the horizon (with a vanishing point). Now would be a good time to draw four more rectangles on your sheet of paper using the method we used to make the first one in 'Step 4'. One rectangle should be above the horizon line (to the right or left of the vanashing point).
One rectangle should be below the horizon line (to the right or left of the vanashing point). The third rectangle should be above or below the horizon and positioned so that it is also above or below the vanishing point. The last rectangle should be on the horizon line, but on the opposite side of the vanishing point as the first box.
Don't allow any of the rectangles to intersect. Place your ruler on the vanishing point and connect lines to all of the corners of the rectangles you just drew that don't require drawing a line over the face of the rectangle (see secondary image). If done correctly, you should have just drawn 10 diagonal lines. Starting with the rectangle above both the horizon and vanishing point, draw a horizontal line connecting the diagonal lines.
This should complete the box. Erase all unnecessary lines. Next find the rectangle that is also above the horizon (but not above the vanishing point). Draw a horizontal line between the diagonals projecting from the bottom two corners and the vanishing point. At the point where the right diagonal line meets the newly created horizontal line, draw a vertical that connects to the diagonal that has been drawn from the top corner of the square. You should now have something that looks like a box. Erase all excess lines until you have a clean box.
Now, with the rectangle below the horizon, you are going to do similarly. Create a horizontal connecting the diagonals coming off the top corners and then drop a vertical from this intersection to the line drawn from the bottom corner. The rectangle on the right should be completed in a similar manner to the one shown in 'Step 5' You should now have 4 new three-dimensional boxes. Draw a 6th rectangle that contains the vanishing point within it (see below). From the image below we can now assert a couple of things. 1) All boxes at least have one visible face.
This is the closest rectangular face to you, the viewer, and it is parallel to to the horizon line. 2) Any box sitting on the horizon line and is located to the left or right of the vanishing point will have 1 additional visible face that fades into the distance. This additional face is a side-ace. (visible faces in total: 2 - a front face and a side face) 3) Any box sitting above the horizon line and is located to the left or right of the vanishing point will have 2 additional visible faces that fade into the distance.
These additional faces are a side-face and a bottom-face. (visible faces in total: 3 - a front face, a side face and a bottom face) 4) Any box sitting below the horizon line and is located to the left or right of the vanishing point will have 2 additional visible faces that fade into the distance. These additional faces are a side-face and a top-face. (visible faces in total: 3 - a front face, a side face and a top face) 5) Any box sitting in front of the vanishing point will only have one visible face. You will be unable to see the top, bottom, left or right-faces since all vanishing lines are hidden from view. (visible faces in total: 1 - a front face) 6) Any box sitting directly above the vanishing point (and horizon) will have 1 additional visible faces that fade into the distance.
This additional face is a bottom-face. (visible faces in total: 2 - a front face and a bottom face) 7) Any box sitting directly below the vanishing point (and horizon) will have 1 additional visible faces that fade into the distance. This additional face is a top-face. (visible faces in total: 2 - a front face and a top face) In strict one-point perspective, no solid object can be drawn and/or viewed outside the parameters just listed. Using these guidelines, you can accurately (re)present any forward facing three-dimensional object that you may find in life. In the not to distant past I was always doing perspective artwork to pass the time.
I used two 7-foot lengths of an aluminum straight edge for guides. I had anchored pivot pins at the very end so I could elevate the beams to maintain perspective parallels. In essence I had two vanishing points.
One on the far left of the paper and one a bit closer to the right side. I used the closest corner of the structure for a vertical scale and reference. The two images I included here are actual structures drawn to reflect the time period they were in use.