The Human Microbiome Was There All Along

How decades of scattered coverage became a new chapter in Anatomy & Physiology.

As I mentioned in my previous post, b the new 12th Edition of Anatomy & Physiology has a new chapter devoted entirely to the human microbiome. I also mentioned that we'd been covering the human microbiome for decades—but in small pieces placed strategically throughout the textbook. 

Our explanation of essential concepts related to the human microbiome goes back at least to our 1993 edition, when we talked about the roles of microorganisms living on the surfaces of our skin, intestines, and other membranes—each in the chapter where it naturally belonged. We didn't call the concept the "human microbiome" because that term was not in common use back then.

Google Ngram Viewer Showing Book Usage of "Human Microbiome"

(click here if the chart is not visible)

The chart above suggests that use of the term “human microbiome” in published books rose sharply after 2012. 

Something else happened during those years. In 2007, the National Institutes of Health launched the Human Microbiome Project. Its researchers began the ambitious task of characterizing the microbial communities associated with different regions of the healthy human body. A coordinated collection of major findings appeared in 2012, helping push the human microbiome into the scientific spotlight.

In our 2013 edition, we introduced the term as our discussion of the microbiome concept evolved and expanded to reflect its growing importance in anatomy and physiology (and its clinical applications).

The 2016 edition of Anatomy & Physiology saw the introduction of our Connect It! (formerly A&P Connect) library of online "special interest" articles, including one about the human microbiome. 

As I've previously explained, many of these articles are intended to help students draw together core concepts that play roles in many different regions and processes of human biology. Because this approach helps our readers gradually build their conceptual frameworks, that microbiome article remains in our Connect It! library. Of course, we revised it to reflect the addition of our new Human Microbiome chapter.

After much research and discussion among the Patton Team of authors and editors, we recognized that the human microbiome deserves its own chapter. We saw how well giving homeostasis its own chapter worked for student understanding and we wanted to give similar emphasis and coherence to the increasingly important microbiome concept. 

In 2022, the final year shown in the Google Ngram chart, with use of the term still climbing, we began our work for this new edition.

Behind the scenes: how did we do it?

It sounds simple. And it may even sound easy. But it wasn't, of course. Such things never are, right?

First, we asked for a volunteer from among our author team to be the designated wrangler of this new chapter. Author Terry Thompson stepped up and is largely responsible for what you see in the new chapter. 

But hey, we're the Patton Team, so we all pitched in to help Terry. Anything you don't like in the new chapter? That's probably because we talked Terry out of something that we shouldn't have. We went back and forth on the new chapter for several years. Despite its brief length and straightforward storyline, there was a lot of research, debate, and hard work that went into producing the version you see.

As alluded to earlier, Terry scanned the entire previous edition to assess our existing microbiome content. Then, using her new research on current scientific thinking, she developed a storyline that we wanted to tell our readers. 

From Patton (2027) Anatomy & Physiology 12e. Elsevier. Contents p. xxxv

Our goal was to give your students the basic concepts they need to build and expand their conceptual frameworks, improve their understanding of A&P, and prepare for later clinical courses and health careers.

Terry wove the previously scattered microbiome content into the new chapter, leaving brief mentions in its previous locations to help students map out where the microbiome applies in their studies. For example, the human microbiome is still mentioned when discussing the skin, the gut, the respiratory tract, and other body regions.

She moved content about what microorganisms are and their roles in the body from Chapter 2's Mechanisms of Disease section and adapted it to the new Chapter 49 on the microbiome. Throughout the process, she added current content based on what microbiome experts are telling us—and what we believe our students really ought to know about.

This is a good spot to give a shout-out to HAPS member Brian Elliott at Saint Louis University, who has been introducing his A&P students to the microbiome concept. He graciously gave us feedback that helped guide us in developing our new chapter. When I participated in the HAPS Book Club discussions of the book, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, I gained greater insight into how microbiome concepts intersect with the mainstream A&P curriculum. Thanks, bookclub friends!

Where to put the new chapter?

One issue that we really wrestled with was this: "Where do we put this new chapter in the book?" 

There are good arguments for putting it among the very earliest chapters. Microbial communities occupy many body sites, and the microbiome influences structures and functions throughout the body. We decided against that for at least two reasons. 

One reason is practical. It's not a small thing to renumber all the subsequent chapters and each of their numbered figures, boxes, and tables—not only in the book itself, but also in all the many, many supporting resources organized by the numbering in the textbook's table of contents. 

The other reason is pedagogical. We didn't want to overwhelm the beginning A&P learner, whose head is already spinning with all those anatomical, chemical, cellular, and metabolic terms by adding another new introductory topic with its own hard-to-pronounce terminology. So we mention it broadly, starting early in the book, but we put the microbiome chapter at the very end.

We could not find an ideal location later in the book, either. It really "goes with" nearly every chapter, so it wasn't clear to us where the "best" placement might be.

Setting all that aside, putting the new chapter at the end of the book gives both readers and instructors some real agency in deciding when they want to dive a bit more deeply into the human microbiome. Early on, we suggest that readers "peek ahead" to the last chapter. They have the option to do that, or to wait. 

Instructors likewise have the option to assign it early or late in the course—or at any point in between. 

Placing it at the end makes it easier to assign the chapter wherever it fits best—or to use only selected parts—without disrupting the book’s traditional sequence.

There's much more to this story.

I think this blog post is getting to be longer than the new chapter is! But now you know part of the story behind our new Chapter 49: Human Microbiome.

In my next post, I’ll get to the most important part of this story by explaining why we believe the human microbiome belongs in A&P—even when students may also encounter it in introductory biology, microbiology, pathophysiology, or other courses.

I strongly suggest that you take a look at the new chapter.

If you haven't already requested a free instructor review copy of the new edition, click here and do that now.

The A&P Textbook You May Have Overlooked

A new edition of my popular two-semester A&P textbook is coming—and I’d like to show you what makes it different. Who knows? Perhaps it’ll be a better fit for your students.

It's Anatomy & Physiology 12th edition by Patton, Bell, Thompson, and Williamson. Published by Elsevier, it's scheduled for release on September 1, 2026. If you're an A&P instructor and would like a free examination copy to explore as soon as it becomes available, click this link:

Reserve a Review Copy

I know that you are wondering: What ARE the big upgrades to the new Anatomy & Physiology 12th edition? Too many to describe in one blog post, that's for sure. So I'll simply list a few here and then follow up with a series of additional posts with more details about the revisions, why we made them, and how they will help your students learn A&P.

One thing we did was add a new chapter! But wait, these A&P textbooks are already too big, right? Right. So we also made this edition 40 pages shorter. 

The new chapter is titled Human Microbiome and draws together existing coverage of this increasingly important A&P concept from previous editions. It then updates and expands microbiome coverage into a concise, accessible, illustrated narrative of its important role in human structure and function. To our knowledge, this textbook was the first major two-semester undergrad A&P textbook to offer a distinct Homeostasis chapter. Now we believe it's the first to offer a Human Microbiome chapter.

Throughout the book, we made our explanations and layout more concise and either removed bits of content not needed for an essential understanding of A&P or moved it to our online resources. For example, our large, comprehensive Glossary—a student favorite—has now been moved to the online Evolve Student Resources. That alone has reduced the amount of pain caused by carrying a huge A&P textbook around!

We turned the story of the human reproductive systems inside out, upside down, and flipped around. Our flipped narrative puts the female system first. I think that's another notable "first" among major textbooks. But there's a lot more. We upended and improved the traditional coverage of the genital organs and reproductive functions—which I'll explain in a subsequent post. 

We've added to our already groundbreaking coverage of fascia, added some cool videos from the Complete Anatomy suite of resources, replaced the content of all of our Career Choices sidebars with new stories about current health professionals, improved our representation of variations of the human body, and a whole lot more!

The whole "Patton Team" of authors, editors, and designers has been working long hours over many months to update, upgrade, and upend our story of human anatomy and physiology. Our previous revisions have made the narrative clearer while incorporating the latest scientific thinking about the topics we cover. This revision steps that work up a couple of notches—so much so that we took extra time to get it right.

The Patton Team met virtually nearly every week to discuss and debate every aspect of this revision. I think the extensive research, lively discussions, coworking, and great care we took have made this a truly remarkable revision.

Since inviting my awesome coauthors to the Anatomy & Physiology project, I've been meaning to introduce them in this blog. So I'm taking this opportunity.

You may already know Frank Bell, Terry Thompson, and Peggie Williamson from their years of active participation in the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS). Terry Thompson is a President Emeritus of HAPS. All three have earned several relevant degrees, including the Master of Science in Human Anatomy & Physiology Instruction (HAPI), in which I served as their faculty mentor. Frank Bell and Peggie Williamson currently serve on the faculty of the HAPI program. 

Besides having worked with them in these capacities, I have enjoyed their contributions to previous editions of this and other textbook revision projects. Working on this revision—and observing their keen awareness of how our students read and learn A&P—has solidified my view that they are exactly the right A&P educators for this team.

Be sure to subscribe to the Patton Anatomy & Physiology blog to stay up to date on upcoming posts introducing specific revisions in our new edition!

Active Concept Maps Help Students Make Connections

 

We all know that concept maps help students learn anatomy and physiology in at least two ways.

One way is when we use concept maps to teach principles in a visual manner that clearly shows relationships among several ideas. Students thus clearly see how to organize their thoughts about connected ideas as they construct their own conceptual frameworks as they learn.

Another way concept maps help students learn is when they build their own concept maps from what they already know about anatomy and physiology. Concept-map-making can thus be a powerful study tool. However, students without prior experience with concept maps often have a difficult time getting started. A few good examples of concept maps that relate to the ideas they are learning in your course are all they need to get a good start in making their own.

Starting with this edition of Patton Anatomy & Physiology we are providing Active Concept Maps in the Student Resources in Evolve. 

Each Active Concept Map is an animated video of a concept map presented in a similar style to the concept maps used throughout the text of Patton Anatomy & Physiology. However, these concept maps are "active" in the sense that they build from a single block as the narrator walks the viewer through each related concept that appears as the concept map branches and grows.

The block-by-block guided walk-through of a major concept will help students understand what they have read and heard in class more deeply. It will also model for students how they can build their own concept maps for other sets of related ideas that they encounter in your course.

Perhaps most importantly, the Active Concept Maps will provide a template for how to think in a "connected" way about the major concepts of the anatomy and physiology course. For many of our challenged students, this is an especially important skill they must develop to succeed.

Here's a brief video walk-through that shows where to find Active Concept Maps in Evolve and how they work:

Tips and Shortcuts for Surviving and Succeeding in A&P

A feature of Patton Anatomy & Physiology that is often overlooked by faculty, but loved by beginning anatomy and physiology students is called 

Tips and Shortcuts for Surviving and Succeeding in A&P.

As soon as an A&P student unwraps and opens their new textbook, they flip over that endpaper and find this one-page guide on how to get started on the path to success. That one page is loaded with great study tips and how-to-read-a-textbook guidance organized in an intuitive, graphic manner. 

From metacognition to tackling new terminology to retrieval practice, this guide uses simple language to quickly outline the key strategies needed to succeed in A&P.

This guide also give faculty a place to quickly send students asking for study advice. And it gives faculty a place to find quick and easy tips for them to share in class or in a syllabus or course website.

Embedded throughout each chapter are brief Hints that remind students to use these strategies just at the moment they need them. Read more about these Hints at Embedded Hints Improve Reading Comprehension.

Patton Anatomy & Physiology is a textbook that is truly focused on helping students succeed!

Netter 3D Anatomy—Now Better Than Ever!

We've been offering Netter 3D Anatomy as a supplement to Patton Anatomy & Physiology at no added cost through the past few editions. Faculty and students alike have enjoyed the adventures they've undertaken as they explore the various regions of the human body using three-dimensional, dissectible images. That won't change in the new 11the edition. Or will it?!

The availability of Netter 3D Anatomy will still be there. And it will continue to be offered at no added cost to students. But it will be better in several ways. 

You probably already know the name of Frank Netter, the brilliant and widely respected anatomy and medical illustrator.  Dubbed "the Michelangelo of medicine" by the Saturday Evening Post, Netter revolutionized how anatomy is learned and taught through visual depictions. His work is realistic, yet clear and uncluttered.  And it is beautiful.

Netter 3D Anatomy adapts Netter's vast library of anatomical art to a gamification environment to make the study of Netter's "virtual" anatomy highly engaging.  The environment does this by melding 3D versions of anatomical structures with the ability to manipulate them in real time—thus adding the fourth dimension of time.  

Netter 3D Anatomy uses advanced gaming technology and interactive 3D anatomy models to learn, review, and teach anatomy. That's still true, but many improvements have been made to the ease-of-access and functionality of the platform. 

Students using Patton Anatomy & Physiology will no longer have to create a separate account and login through a separate system. It'll all be contained within the Evolve Student Resources that students already use—and have logged into—for all their other textbook tools and resources. As instructors, we know how important a single-login system can be for our students.

Students and instructors will find that the ease of use of Netter 3D Anatomy has improved tremendously. We worked closely with the developer, wearing our teacher hats, then wearing our student hats, to make sure that any obstacles to easy use are eliminated. And we're very happy with the results!

Because each user is "in control" as they zoom, twist, pull apart, unwrap, peel away, and pan, this program also adds the kinesthetic dimension characteristic of the best "virtual reality" experiences. Users can add or remove labels at will. This multimodal approach implements principles of brain-based learning a a way that gives the user the enjoyment of playing an exploratory game.

Professors can also use this tool in the classroom or lab to demonstrate anatomical relationships in a way that 2D illustrations, plastic models, and even dissection specimens cannot.  For example, layers of the GI wall can be easily peeled away to demonstrate each coat.  The skull bones can be pulled apart—then put back together—to help students quickly learn this tricky part of the skeleton. 

Something new in Patton Anatomy & Physiology is that we've added guided explorations to the Netter 3D Anatomy platform. These are developed in key areas with our own students in mind. They walk users through a specific set of concepts. This not only guides learning, it also gives students practice in using the platform so that they can be more confident about striking out on their own to explore other areas of the body.

The really cool thing about using Netter 3D Anatomy as a teaching tool is that each student can recreate—and extend—this experience on their own during individual or group time! This is a perfect tool to use in remote learning. If you suddenly have to shift to fully remote, you students will already have an interactive tool they can use independently!

Oh—did I mention?—Netter 3D Anatomy is provided at no additional cost to students!

Enough of me jabbering away about it—why not have your Elsevier Educational Solutions Consultant give you a free, personalized demonstration.

The Lymphatic System Deserves Its Own Chapter

 A social media thread I ran across recently laments that the lymphatic system is an undervalued and undertaught topic in the anatomy and physiology curriculum. That puzzles me.

Admittedly, I don't bring up the lymphatic system a lot in my day-to-day conversations. Not even in chats with other A&P enthusiasts. But it does come up sometimes in conversations about teaching or learning A&P. And when it does, I think the usual reaction involves some variety of love for the lymphatic system. So I'm puzzled.

In our Patton Anatomy & Physiology textbook, the lymphatic system certainly gets the love and attention it deserves. In fact, we feel that it deserves its own chapter! Unlike most A&P textbooks, Patton Anatomy & Physiology has a separate Lymphatic System chapter that follows Blood, Heart, Blood Vessels, and Circulation of Blood chapters and precedes the chapters Innate Immunity, Adaptive Immunity, and Stress.

That placement of the chapter puts it in exactly that spot in the story where we want it. That is, our story of the lymphatic system picks up the story of circulation begun in the Circulation of Blood chapter by explaining where the excess fluid left out of venous return goes. It goes back to the bloodstream via an elegant lymphatic drainage system. 

But wait! There's more! That fluid being returned to the bloodstream from the tissues is filtered in the lymph nodes before joining the blood supply. Which then allows us to introduce the concept of immunity and the lymphatic system's key role as a partner in the immune system. 

The next chapters Innate Immunity and Adaptive Immunity then pick up that part of the story after the Lymphatic System chapter. Then, after all those parts of the story set the final pieces needed, the Stress chapter integrates diverse concepts learned in previous chapters into a big picture of how our body deals with the world.

Although that social media thread lamenting that the lymphatic system is undervalued and undertaught puzzles me on one level, I wholeheartedly agree that the lymphatic system deserves any love we do give it. In the eleventh edition of Patton Anatomy & Physiology, available November 2021, we've added a bit more love by adding a brief description of the emerging concept of the glymphatic system. And, in our usual style, we generally refined and clarified our story of the amazing lymphatic system.

Check out the heavily illustrated story of the lymphatic system in Patton Anatomy & Physiology. I think you'll agree that we really do show this system some love.

Diverse Representation in Anatomy & Physiology

From the earliest days of my involvement with the Anatomy & Physiology textbook, I've strived to ensure that the representation of people in the illustration program, the chapter narratives, the examples and cases presented, reflects the diversity of humanity. 

My publisher has fully supported my (rather expensive) requests for creating new artwork and shooting new photographs. They have also supported my chapter revisions and have helped me find and revise passages that need improvement.

Why is this important? 

Our students—my readers and users of the textbook—must see themselves and their lived experiences reflected in this textbook and other learning materials. If they cannot, then it's difficult for them to see themselves fully accepted as part of the humanity that we explore in the anatomy and physiology course. This perceived lack of acceptance is a very real barrier to learning. When they cannot easily see themselves as part of the world of A&P, then it's also a barrier for students as they pursue their career path. 

Diverse representation in Anatomy & Physiology is also important because students must develop an understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of the normal variation and diversity among the human population if they are to be successful as healthcare and athletic professionals. 

The seventh edition of Anatomy & Physiology marked the moment when diverse and inclusive representation became a goal of every revision cycle. In the tenth edition, we were able to significantly diversify our photo collection and anatomical illustrations. 

For example, in the tenth edition, we were among the first to use Black female subjects for the key illustrations of human musculature—overturning centuries of white males serving that role.

Diversity and inclusion has been a primary goal of the upcoming eleventh edition of Anatomy & Physiology, as well. As we review our page proofs and make our final tweaks, we continue our strong effort to make our textbook one of the most inclusive science textbooks on the market.

However, as much as we have made admirable progress and maintained our lead in this area, we still have a long way to go. It's a daunting task. And the path is not always clear. The resources are not always available. Our awareness is still expanding. Nonetheless, I think you'll be pleased with the new edition when it is published later this year. 

And I hope you'll join us in pointing out where we've made good progress and where we still need to improve. We're in this together.

Stress Deserves Its Own Chapter

One of the advantages of organizing anatomy and physiology concepts into short, modular chapters is that it gives us more flexibility in teaching. It also permits us to focus on important topics that are often buried within a large chapter that covers many subtopics.  Taking this advantage, Anatomy & Physiology puts the clinically important concepts of stress into a single, independent chapter.

The concepts of stress interconnect with concepts of neuroscience, endocrinology, immunology, and many others—covered in diverse chapters of a textbook and diverse modules of an A&P course. Putting the core concepts of stress into its own independent chapter means that the instructor has more flexibility in where they place in their own course structure—into their own unique telling of the story of the human body.

Our book was the first A&P textbook to have an independent stress chapter. Since its introduction, we've been keeping the content up to date and relevant to student learning—and to the clinical applications of stress they'll be making in their professional courses and careers. 

More recently, we enlisted the advice of the late Dr. Bruce McEwen, an icon of the modern concepts of human stress and it's real-life implications. Contributing author Dr. Peggie Williamson and I used Bruce's advice and his generous stack of resources to give our stress chapter a major refresh and update. You will find that the engaging story-of-stress approach remains, but with the more recent parts of that story reflected with greater clarity and relevance.

We need not let the concepts of stress be stressors themselves in our teaching and learning. Using the stress chapter in Anatomy & Physiology—a reader favorite—can help us all better understand the pivotal role stress can have in wellness and disease.

Your Modular Anatomy & Physiology Textbook

Ever dreamed of rearranging the order of topics in your course. That is, have you ever wanted to shift the order of topics as they are presented in your textbook to fit the way you tell your story of the human body? Without the obstacles of assigning a half-chapter here and the other half-chapter there—and possibly causing some students to get a bit lost?

Yeah, me too. That's why I've worked hard to move away from the gigantic-chapter model we see in most A&P textbooks to the modular model in our Anatomy & Physiology textbook. Instead of the usual 20-something large chapters commonly seen, our textbook has 48 chapters—but about the same number of pages as all the others. That is, those gigantic chapters have been broken down into smaller bits.

Besides the advantage of making our reading assignments less intimidating for students, the arrangement of concepts in smaller chapters also means that it is far easier for any instructor to move things around a bit to better suit their particular telling of the A&P story. 

For example, because the introduction to homeostasis is its own short chapter, faculty have the choice to move it's place in the course to the very beginning—before all those directional terms and cavities, and so forth Or one could move it a bit later in the course, after the foundational chemistry, cell, and tissue coverage to just prior to beginning covering the first body system. 

The short stress chapter could be moved earlier or later in the course, without having to separate it out of another larger chapter that covers other topics as well. 

One could even decide to have students learn the appendicular skeleton first, before getting to that intimidating skull and vertebral column. 

If you've not looked at the Patton Anatomy & Physiology text in a while, this might be a good time to check it out and think about it's modular structure may be a better fit for your A&P course.

You may want to learn more about the story of our smaller chapters by reading these brief posts:

• Chunking Content Provides Flexibility
• Reducing Text Anxiety
• Chunking Chapters - By the Numbers
• Homeostasis Deserves Its Own Chapter

Pandemic Scramble: Keeping It Simple

In my opinion, the big mistake that professors commonly make when moving an on-campus course to remote teaching is to make things more complicated than they need to be. That unnecessary complexity stems from the idea that one must take their entire course, including every element and detail, and move it more or less "as is" to an online environment. I think we get much better outcomes if we strive to keep it simple.

First, "remote" need not always be "online." There are a lot of learning opportunities to be had with reading and retrieval practice assignments from the Patton Anatomy & Physiology textbook. Students have invested a lot in acquiring this resource and a large team has worked together to make it an effective learning tool. Now's a great time to do better by our students by helping them engage fully in both reading and raiding their textbook. 

Second, now is a great time to revisit our learning outcomes and compare those to our course design. Most of us keep adding more expected outcomes, and therefore more content, to our courses over the years. As we consider various learning activities, we often add them rather than replace existing activities. Our course becomes bloated, complex, and heavier than it needs to be. So my advice is to prune, prune, prune to the main outcomes—the truly essential concepts—of our A&P course. Then, and only then, are we ready to move to remote teaching.

Third, rather than simply digitize our course components—recording lectures, converting tests and quizzes to online formats, etc.—we should rethink our course design. I suggest trimming back on what we are telling and showing showing students and rely more on their own discovery. And resisting the urge to use every last one of the cool toys that our instructional designers are helping us to discover.

What I mean by that is focusing our recorded lectures on the hard-to-understand "pain points" of A&P. And even then, we should consider trimming our narrative down to half or less of that 50-minute time block that we are used to. Then taking those shorter lectures and chunking them into even smaller, bite-sized pieces.

We can also substitute those occasional, mind-bending summative tests with frequent, low-stakes formative tests by using the our learning management system's online quizzing engine. This leverages the learning benefits of retrieval practice by shifting the work of learning to the student—where it belongs. This approach also makes light work of learning, thus avoiding a burdensome load during this time of stress and uncertainty.

To learn more about these suggestions and more, watch my video presentation Simple Ideas for Moving to Remote Learning or listen to an audio version from my podcast.

Don't forget all the tips I have for you at my Pandemic Teaching Resources page.

Pandemic Scramble: Use Netter's 3D Anatomy Included with Your Textbook

A big part of the still-in-progress "pandemic scramble" of trying to get our A&P course from is on-campus venue to a remote or semi-remote format is grappling with finding a good tool to teach the anatomy that we usually teach in a lab.  Many of my colleagues are looking here and there and everywhere for just the right tool. A tool at an affordable price.

Guess what? If you and your students are using the Patton Anatomy & Physiology textbook in your course, you already have a great tool! At no extra cost! Really. No new licenses. No subscriptions. No extra fees. Not only that, there's nothing for you to arrange in order for your students to have it. They already have it!

Open the book and on the page facing the inside front cover, you'll see the scratch-off label for Netter's 3D Anatomy. Use the access code and you'll unlock a beautiful set of anatomy tools based on the famous illustrations by Frank H. Netter and his successors. Rendered in three dimensions, these amazing illustrations of the structures of the human body can be moved and rotated around easily to see them from any angle. Structures can also be pulled apart and put back together, thus making this platform a true virtual dissection tool. 

Now might be a good time to review my post Netter's 3D Interactive Anatomy Provides a Multimodal Learning Experience.

But how does one use Netter's 3D Anatomy in teaching a course—especially when trying to replicate an in-lab learning experience? There are many options, but here are a few to spark your own creative solutions:

• Use your "lab list" of required structures to identify in a dissection—or develop such a list—and assign students to find them, just as they would in a "wet" dissection.
  
  
• Consider having students take screen shots of their work and compile their own "guide to the body."
  
  
• Take your own screen shots—perhaps even a narrated video screen shot—to guide students through each region you'd like to have them "dissect" on their own.
  
  
• Use captured screen shots to produce a virtual dissection quiz.
  
  
• Assign students a set of structures to "teach" the class, and let them share their screens and walk the rest of the class through their assigned structures. 

I use Snagit by TechSmith for my screen captures—both still and video—because I've become comfortable with its many features, such as easy markups of screen captures. However, you can use any screen capture tool—including the one probably already installed in your system.

Have any other ideas for using Netter's 3D Anatomy in your course? Just go to the bottom of this post at the Anatomy & Physiology blog and share your idea!

Don't forget all the tips I have for you at my Pandemic Teaching Resources page.

Pandemic Scramble: Use Your Included Online A and P Course

As we scramble this summer—and possibly through the fall—to shift our A&P course from its usual on-campus venue to remote teaching, let's not forget the tools that we already have at hand. Why go out looking for new tools when we already have all or most of what we need right there in our toolbox?

One such tool that we may already have handy is Anatomy & Physiology Online. This product is packaged at no extra cost with many versions of the Anatomy & Physiology textbook. Check which version has been adopted in your course to see if the online course is included. If it's not included, check with your Elsevier education consultant about your options. But mostly likely, you and your students already have it!

Anatomy & Physiology Online is a ready-to-go online experience for your students! Let me say that again. Ready. To. Go.

There's nothing to prepare, organize, plan—nothing. 

Well, okay, there is one thing you have to do. That is to decide whether you want to import the course into your learning management system and operate it there or instead operate it within Elsevier's learning management system (Evolve).

As I recommend in my free eBook Pandemic Teaching: A Survival Guide for College Faculty, a good strategy is to trim back the "extras" and focus on the core concepts that students really need to take with them into their next courses. Anatomy & Physiology Online does that for you! Yep, it's already aimed at those core principles from the textbook in a manner well-suited for most courses.

Yeah, okay, maybe if you'd created an online course, you'd have done this or that a bit differently. Perhaps added a bit here or left that other thing out. But this is a pandemic scramble, right? We don't have time now to do it perfectly. But if you do have extra time—an amusing concept—nothing is stopping you from adding other course elements alongside Anatomy & Physiology Online.

So why invent a wheel you and your students already have? Anatomy & Physiology Online seems custom-made for this pandemic scramble we're in right now!

If you need help, contact your Elsevier education consultant any time.

Pandemic Scramble: Adapting to Remote Learning, Suddenly

Well, friends, I'll bet most of us didn't see this pandemic coming. Not to the extent of impact it's had on the teaching and learning of anatomy and physiology. But it's here and we're going to roll with the punches and deliver a positive and productive learning experience for our students, right?

To help us all get ourselves organized and on the right track as we adapt to suddenly having to move our face-to-face course homes to a remote venue out there in the vast expanse of space, I've assembled a few "get started" resources to help you adapt.

Quickly Moving to Remote Delivery—The Musical

This is an "emergency" bonus episode of my podcast (The A&P Professor). The brief audio presentation presents nineteen tips on how to get started. And there are three A&P songs from my friend and fellow A&P teacher, Greg Crowther. For a sing-along! We could all use a light-hearted sing-along about sodium ions right now, am I right?

Go to theAPprofessor.org/64b for an audio player plus a lot of links and other resources. Or subscribe in your favorite podcast player and look for Episode 64b.

There is also an earlier episode called Mid-Winter Winterizing of Our Courses meant to help prepare us before this all flooded in upon us. Many of these prep tips are still useful, even as the metaphorical flood waters continue to rise all around us. Go to theAPprofessor.org/63b

TEACH Instructor Resources for Anatomy & Physiology

This little gem has been there all along! Really. In your Evolve (Instructor) Resources for Anatomy & Physiology 10th Edition.  TEACH has all kinds of tips and strategies that can be used to generate ideas for learning activities that can be adapted for remote teaching.

Included in TEACH are:

• Lesson Plans
• Student Handouts
• PowerPoint Slides
• Pretest Questions and Pretest Answers

If you don't have an Evolve account, then just go to evolve.elsevier.com and click on Sign In in the upper right, then click on Create Account near the bottom of the form that pops up. Make sure you apply for a faculty account. It will take a day or so to verify your faculty status. In the search box on the home page, or when you click Catalog at the top, type in Evolve Resources for Anatomy & Physiology 10th Edition, then request access. The TEACH resources will be listed in the Instructor Resources tab.

But wait! There's more...

Teaching Tips

Also found in your  Evolve (Instructor) Resources for Anatomy & Physiology 10th Edition, a separate sheet of advice—simply called Teaching Tips—supplements the TEACH resources to spark ideas for your transition to remote teaching.  

Besides the TEACH resources and Teaching Tips, there are all kinds of other resources in your  Evolve (Instructor) Resources for Anatomy & Physiology 10th Edition:

• Audience Response Questions—meant for "clicker" systems in a classroom, they can be easily adapted for online presentations to spark student thinking during an online "lecture" or demonstration.
• Image Collection—contains (labeled and unlabeled) jpeg and PowerPoint versions of each image from the textbook.
• Test Bank—can be a great resource for quickly constructing online quizzes and reviews. Consider using them for Testing-as-Teaching, a type of retrieval practice mentioned later in this post.

The A&P Professor

I already mentioned The A&P Professor podcast, but there is lot more there for you than those "emergency" bonus episodes. It's worth exploring the whole list for practical tips and advice as you move to remote teaching. The great thing about podcast episodes is that you can listen to them while you are wiping down the surfaces in your home, making your family's meals, and rearranging your stacks of toilet paper. Here are a few selected topics to start with:

• Advice for online teaching
• 50: Connecting in the Distance Course Special (general advice for staying connected to students remotely—especially important at this time)
• 52: The Case for Case Studies (case studies are a great way to teach remotely)
• 19: Caring for Students Helps Them Succeed
• Handling the chaos
• 63: Mistakes in Teaching Anatomy & Physiology (yep, if we're gonna make a lot of mistakes, this will be when—learn how to handle that)
• 51: The Case for Transparency (why being up front and honest with our students about what's happening is important)
• Testing-as-Teaching (retrieval practice)
• 01:Spaced Retrieval Practice
• 02: Testing As a Teaching Strategy

Besides the podcast, The A&P Professor website includes other resources, such as online seminars for teaching anatomy and physiology. Here are a couple that may be helpful as this time:

• Online Lecture Previews (can be adapted for any kind of online presentation)
• Testing as Teaching (randomized testing to allow multiple attempts—using retrieval practice for learning)

Free eText

VitalSource and Elsevier have partnered to provide eText access to students. To assist students at disrupted semester-calendar schools who are losing access to course materials due to COVID-19 campus closures, VitalSource has been joined by Elsevier to offer free access to etexts to students whose classes have moved online from March 16 through May 25, 2020. Students will be able to access the expansive catalog of eTexts from participating publishers through the VitalSource Bookshelf app effective immediately.

• See the announcement
• FAQs for students and educators
• List of publishers and resellers who are supporting this effort
• For students who need assistance accessing free etexts

Besides this being useful to students who are "stuck without" their textbooks, it can offer additional opportunities to connect with students in a remote environment. 

For example, something that I do in an online course I teach is let my students "subscribe" to the highlights and notes in my own copy of the eText version of the textbook. 

I can mark areas of particular importance, add commentary on what they should be looking at in a section or illustration, and clarify concepts that commonly challenge student learning. This could be particularly useful in "holding the hand" of a confused and dazed student who is trying to adapt to a new learning environment.

Coloring Book

I've been seeing a lot of advice to folks in general, telling them to sit around as a family and color in their coloring books. That makes a lot of sense in terms of diffusing stress and connecting in a positive way with those with whom we are house-bound. 

Why not suggest to students to do that, but use Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Coloring Book as one of their coloring books? 

In a post from my blog The A&P Student, I recommend coloring as a way to study anatomy and physiology in a new and fun way—that also calms the nerves. So their nerves will become calm as they study their nerves! Check out Coloring Books Are Powerful Study Tools (And They Help Manage Stress).

Okay, whew! That's enough for now, eh? Don't hesitate to reach out if I can be of help to you. 

The New Adaptive Quizzing Tool Is Available!

Did you know that there's a new version of  Elsevier Adaptive Quizzing (EAQ) now available for Anatomy & Physiology 10th edition?

I've mentioned the value of EAQ in the past, but this version has been updated and enhanced to be an even more valuable learning and teaching tool! 

• Have you ever wished that you could tell where your students are struggling with content by just glancing at a dashboard?


• Wouldn’t it be amazing if your students were being quizzed on material they’re struggling with versus material they’ve already mastered?

How would you like to create a quiz or a test that adapts to your student’s needs, in just 3 easy steps?

Check out this 1 minute video below to show you how!

Set up an EAQ quiz in 3 easy steps!

My friend Ashley Nagel over at Elsevier Publishing is hosting a 30-minute live demo on EAQ for Anatomy & Physiology 10th edition on Thursday, October 4th at 1:00 PM CST.

If you would like to attend, simply register by clicking or copying/pasting this link:

https://elsevier.zoom.us/meeting/register/0e4dc230bd47f4498c34be5db4a05ad8 

If you attend, Ashley will send you a fantastic gift that’s fit for an A&P Instructor!

If you’re unable to make it to this demo, but would like to set up a private demo at a time that better works for your schedule, still register for this meeting and then shoot Ashley an email at a.nagel@elsevier.com . She’ll be happy to set up a time with you!

What's Up with Eponyms in A&P? Part 2

In my previous article, I gave some reasons why in the Anatomy & Physiology textbook I avoid possessive form for all eponyms (which I lump together with toponyms) and avoid capitalizing eponyms in which the name is converted to a different form. For example, I use Henle loop instead of loop of Henle and I use eustachian tube instead of Eustachian tube.

Next, why are eponyms usually presented as only the secondary or alternate term? For example, why is the term preferred in the textbook pancreatic islets and not islets of Langerhans or Langerhans islets? It turns out that this is another contemporary trend that I agree with.

Eponyms can be problematic. As much as I love saying Islets of Langerhans out loud—and I truly do—the term does not tell anyone much about the actual structure. Okay, it tells me that they are small and isolated, which I get from the term islets. However, the eponym doesn't tell me where to find them. Or what they do. Or much of anything very useful. But pancreatic islets tells me much more about them. Not everything, of course—but such descriptive terms tell me much more than does the eponym islets of Langerhans. 


Another potential problem with eponyms has to do with the people themselves. For example, recent discussions of Hans Asperger have expressed concerns about a potentially complicated relationship with Nazi "race hygiene." Although named for him, the condition Asperger syndrome (AS) may have been first described nearly two decades earlier by a Russian woman working in the field of child psychology.

Besides that, the Asperger eponym has been dropped from the ICD (International Classification of Disease) and the DSM (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in favor of a new range of conditions under the umbrella term autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In general, the ICD and DSM usually consider eponyms as secondary alternatives to "proper" disease terminology.

There are several issues at play with terms like the Asperger eponym. One is the fact that many (perhaps most) eponyms recognize the individual with the best awareness ratio, most aggressive supporters, and (probably mostly) lucky timing—not necessarily the person(s) most deserving of recognition. 

Another issue is the fact that we don't want to be reminded of Nazi ideology or atrocities when we are using scientific and medical terminology—nor are we anxious to honor individuals who may have used morally questionable methods or have other unsavory qualities.

Yet another potential issue with such eponyms is that they may reflect the dark underbelly of the history of science.

Cross section of fallopian tube

For example, Asperger syndrome may have been first described by a woman—but the condition was named for a man. This case is probably more about luck of timing and particulars of awareness of the existing literature at a time when scientific reports were not as easily accessed across the globe as is the case nowadays. However, it can't be denied that most eponyms are named for men and that probably reflects the historical exclusion of women from science—and from scholarly endeavor in general.

A number of discussions have also questioned why many anatomical structures that are uniquely female are named with eponyms that honor men such as Fallopius, Bartholin, Skene, and so on.

Even though this my second consecutive article on the topic of eponyms, I'm still not finished! Stay tuned for Part 3 of my discussion...coming up in my next blog post. In that, I discuss the various lists of terminology and how we A&P teachers can best help our students deal with a changing terminology during this time of transition.

What's Up with Eponyms in A&P? Part 1

Eponyms are terms based on a person's name—such as Langerhans islet. Often, it's the recognized discoverer of a structure, process, condition, medical procedure, or whatever.

Toponyms are similar, but are named for a place rather than a person. For example, Lyme disease is a toponym, named for a town in Connecticut where the condition was first identified. In anatomy and medical circles, toponyms are often lumped together with eponyms. I'll do that here, too—because my explanations apply equally to both kinds of terms.

In Anatomy & Physiology, you may notice some things about the use of eponyms and toponyms that you are wondering about. So here's the scoop...

First, you may wonder why I avoid the possessive form of eponyms. For example, Parkinson disease  rather than Parkinson's disease. This method converts the possessive form to an adjective. By doing that, it's clear that Dr. Parkinson did not own the disease, nor did he have the condition himself. It's now very clear that the term refers to a particular disease named after Parkinson. I agree with this strategy.

It turns out that this has been the trend for a quite a while, but only recently becoming widespread in use. For example, the American Medical Association (AMA) and other professional organizations that have something to say about terminology, recommend this approach. Because I think a textbook should reflect contemporary usage and engage with emerging approaches that have recently become mainstream, it makes sense to go in this direction.

Something else you may wonder about is that some eponyms are capitalized and others are not. For example, why are fallopian tube and eustachian tube not capitalized when Corti organ and Henle loop are capitalized?

Honestly, I only recently learned about this issue—when my copyeditor and I started going back and forth changing each other's terms from capitalized to lowercase, back to capitalized again, then lowercase again. It turns out that it's an increasingly common style to drop the capitalization when the person's name is converted to an altered form. As when Fallopius is altered to fallopian.

What is important to remember is that using possessive forms eponyms is not wrong. Nor is capitalizing Haversian canal. However, neither usage is in favor around many professional circles right now. My purpose is merely to explain why my usage may differ from the way you and I were trained.

You may also wonder why I usually relegate eponyms to only secondary or alternate status when naming structures and processes of the body. And you may wonder how we handle these changes in usage in a world where some professionals still use the older terminology. Those answers will have to wait until my next few articles. This one is already too long!

New Unit Pre-Tests Help Jump-Start Student Learning

A particularly exciting update in the new edition of Anatomy & Physiology is the new learning feature in the opening of each unit of the book.

Recall that A&P is chunked into more, smaller chapters than other 2-semester A&P textbooks to reduce a reader's cognitive load while learning. This improves both the reader's engagement with the book, making them more likely to actually read it, and the overall ability to learn from it. These small chapters are grouped into six logical units, mapped out in the color-coded list on the first page of the book (facing the cover) that corresponds to the color tabs visible on the page edges.

In previous editions, the unit-opener page had a listing of the chapters within that unit plus a brief introduction to the "story" of the unit. I have now expanded that into a two-page spread that also includes a brief pre-test to get students engaged in the upcoming topics.

Learning science shows that pre-tests help jump-start student learning. Long used solely to measure students' prior knowledge, pre-tests have demonstrated their own ability to enhance learning outcomes—even if teachers never look at the scores. I have found this to be profoundly true in my own A&P teaching.

The concept and design of our new unit openers was worked out by textbook learning guru Michael Greer, veteran A&P teacher Terry Thompson, and myself. Terry then worked in consultation with me and our editors and book designers to execute the final versions.

Students will see just a few illustrated questions that help students refresh learning from prior chapters that they'll need when reading the new unit, along with questions that preview new concepts they'll encounter. Such pre-testing "primes the pump" by getting them thinking about key concepts ahead of their reading. And it sets the stage for connecting new learning with prior learning.

Readers get immediate feedback on the accuracy of their answers by using the answer key printed sideways along the page edge.  Just like in a magazine quiz, eh? That ensures that they're not accidentally remembering the wrong answer as they read.

Readers also get an embedded hint that tells them why the pre-test is there (to jump-start their learning).

Of course, our students may just skip the unit openers. So we need to tell them about it. Continued and emphatic reminders of the value of these pre-tests in making their reading and learning easier is a key to its role in student success in our course.

New 10th Edition of Patton's A&P textbook is now available!

I'm excited about the official release of the new edition of my textbook for 2-semester courses in human anatomy and physiology!

Although at first glance the cover of Anatomy & Physiology looks similar to that of the previous 9th edition—black background with splashes of bright colors—closer inspection reveals a series of bright human figures.

Those brightly colored human figures may at first appear to be medical images. However, they are artist’s renderings of what the human skeleton looks like as a person plays basketball.

The human skeleton in action represents several important aspects of what readers will learn by studying this textbook. First, the images get us thinking about what is going on inside our bodies as we do ordinary things—as we live our lives. 

The fact that the cover of Anatomy & Physiology shows a sequence of images reminds us that even simple processes are made up of many individual steps. We can also clearly see that form fits function, that the elements of the skeleton fit together and move in a way that allows certain kinds of actions.

That phrase, form fits function, has been standardized into that one formulation—from its many variants—in this edition. I have used it repeatedly, where appropriate, to help students absorb and eventually own that important principle of anatomy and physiology.

And a version of this explanation of the cover art is found just inside inside the book. Curious students who pick up the book for the first time may thus get a head start on learning human science.

Over the next few weeks and months, expect more posts from me that explain the story behind all the great new things you'll find inside the new edition of Anatomy & Physiology. Stay tuned by subscribing to my newsletter!

In the mean time, contact my friends at Elsevier to get a review copy or to schedule a conversation with a consultant who can tell you all about the new edition.

NOTE: The digital versions and binder-ready version of Anatomy & Physiology will be released very soon!