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Upper School Science Students Visit Cadaver Lab

11/13/2017

Fourteen Collegiate Upper School anatomy students traveled to Northern Virginia Community College's Medical Education Campus in Springfield, Virginia, last week to get an up-close look at a cadaver.

The students, accompanied by Upper School biology teacher Dave Privasky and Upper School Learning Specialist Helen Markiewicz, spent nearly two hours in the cadaver lab with an instructor who guided them through the body. They examined the chest/abdominal muscles, heart, thoracic cavity and digestive and urinary systems.

The instructor also showed students multiple human hearts, lungs (including those extracted from a smoker), liver, kidney, brains, a knee with knee replacement and a hip with hip replacement. Each student had the chance to hold and touch the real organs and then pass them to his or her neighbor.

After examining the cadaver, the group headed to simulation rooms, where members engaged with infant, adolescent, adult and pregnant female computer-controlled manikins that simulated seizing, bleeding, talking and blinking. The students also observed the interactive Anatomage Table visualization system that shows all body systems and acts as a virtual dissection table.

“The experience was incredible,” Mr. Privasky said. “I am so proud of my students as they were so mature, respectful and willing to challenge themselves in new ways.”

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