Although I took a lot of science classes in high school, I never had the opportunity to do any dissections. Dissections were always something wanted to get to do because I feel like the best way to learn is through hands on experience. I first fell in love with anatomy in middle school when I visited the Body Worlds exhibit while it was in Philadelphia. My dad took me to this exhibit expecting that we would walk through quickly, but instead we were there for hours as I stopped and closely examined every part of the exhibit. This exhibit was the closest I ever got to dissecting anything before this JanPlan, but the exhibit definitely inspired me to want to learn more about anatomy.
In my various science classes and in my emergency medical technician training I had learned about the basic structure and function of the heart. Numerous times I have been asked to trace a drop of blood through the heart and it is something that I could recite in my sleep. When we started the cardiovascular unit in anatomy and physiology this JanPlan I thought I was going to hear the same spiel about the heart that I had heard so many times before. However, this JanPlan, I saw the heart in a whole new light. Though I had already learned the basic function before I learned about the anatomy in much more detail this month than I had in the past. I also learned more about the electric conductance system of the heart and some very basically how this presents itself on an EKG, which is particularly interesting to me since I see EKGs done by the paramedics on the ambulance all the time.
The heart and its function have always been interesting to me, however, I did not fully understand how truly amazing the heart and its structure are until I was holding the pig heart in my hands. While the heart was in my hands I was able to identify the structures that I have learned about so many times and really see for myself the relationship between the structure of the heart and its function. Being able to literally stick my fingers through the arteries and veins to feel where they went lead me to understand the structure of the heart on a whole other level. I was amazed at how muscular the walls of the heart actually are. You are always told that the heart is an incredibly strong muscle, and it is a fact that you just blindly accept as true, but holding the heart in my hands and trying to cut through the muscular walls really showed me the true strength of the heart muscle. I was also surprised at how strong the chordae tendonae were given the fact that they look no stronger than a strand of floss. I put their strength to the test by pulling on them with lots of force and was unable to break them. The heart dissection reminded me of the importance of hands on learning and learning through discovery as opposed to just blindly accepting things as fact. When you blindly accept things it is easy to lose sight of the intricacies and wonder involved in the systems around us. I was in awe during the entire heart dissection and it really changed the way I thought about the cardiovascular system and reminded me of the importance of being curious and full of wonder.
