Activity 2: Reflection
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What major challenge do you think you will encounter in applying what you have learned from anatomy?
On a personal level, I find anatomy and physiology to be a fascinating course since it gives us the chance to learn more about the structures and inner workings of our bodies. However, many of us find it challenging because of the time constraints and other factors we experience throughout the course, especially with the vast amounts of material to memorize and mechanisms to grasp. In addition to that, studying takes a great deal of time, and the transition between lessons is fast-paced. Thus, acquiring a holistic and all-encompassing understanding of the subject demands a great deal of commitment and discipline. Nevertheless, aside from the difficulties already described, what I consider most challenging is the possibility of not being able to recall all bits of information that I have studied due to information overload. On another note, the likelihood of finding it difficult to distinguish body organs in real life from those seen in textbooks when doing actual practice is yet another obstacle that comes to mind (consider, for instance, the meme below).
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What are your plans to overcome this challenge?
With regards to overcoming the challenges cited earlier, whenever I have sufficient time, I plan to review what I have learned from the past lessons with the aid of online interactive flashcards, quizzes, and 3D images that can facilitate active recall – especially on the different structures of the muscular system, which has a lot of parts and difficult terms to memorize. In addition to that, I also plan to utilize the past laboratory worksheets to better retain the structures and functions of the body systems. Furthermore, given that the transition of the lessons is very fast-paced, and my knowledge on some topics may still be limited or not be as broad, I intend to work on this by conducting some small group discussions and reviews with some friends so that we can exchange ideas and gain a more comprehensive understanding of each lesson. Last but not least, aside from eagerly anticipating actual laboratory sessions next semester, I plan to watch more surgery videos in the meantime to get a visual impression of how each organ of the body systems appears so that I can distinguish them from an actual view and from what I have seen in textbooks.