[RyanC]

Overview:

Well this course consists of many disciplines smushed together into one big class: nursing, midwives, health sci, and engineers. The course content is the same for all students, except for 2L03 (among others) there are extra tests, and tutorials are structured differently.

My review is for the engineer (biomed/chem eng) portion, but most of this applies to the other courses.

Course Structure:

3 lectures a week, one tutorial or lab (alternate weeks)

Usually two of these lectures are regular content and one is a clinical case or pathological study ('what could go wrong').

Throughout the term, the professors alternate (one professor usually covers a system or topic) while the case studies have a guest lecturer presenting their topic. I usually found the pathology not as content-rich as the regular lectures, and found them skippable.. they are much more of value to the other faculties, though, such as the nurses.

Course website is available through avenue to learn or learnlink (for nursing/health scis) and additional content (+videos) on macanatomy.

Lectures:

The lectures themselves are recorded, which means you can absolutely get away with never ever coming to class (not advised). Even if the recording screws up, there are videos from previous years available.

I found the power points very helpful, and sufficient to study from, even if you don't view the recored/live lectures. All the professors are great, very effective and most importantly: comprhendable.

The only major downside is the size of the class (packed mdcl 1305/1307), which limits the discussion or question-asking, as its intimidating and the lecture is highly time-constrained.

Labs:

Laboratories are learning based, and there is no mark awarded beyond attendance.. this is a very smart thing compared to other courses, as you're focused more on learning and indulging your curiosity opposed to scrambling to 'get the answers', whilst missing the big picture.

There is usually computer simulation, pure anatomy, dissection, and pathology components, depending on the particular lab.

People usually split into groups of 3-5 and choose what they want to do.

Simulation: use electrodes, blood cuffs, spirometeter, etc recording devices to investigate a volunteer's vitals to analyze some particular behaviour.. graphs and data can be tabulated in order to understand the relationships between various aspects of the physiology of the system. After the main simulation component is finished, there is a big page of questions that can be answered. (most people skim through this portion of the lab, but each midterm and exam has questions from this, and the labtime is the only time you can really learn this material)

Anatomy: Look at specimens to understand their structure; usually taken from the main anatomy lab you have access to any time, but some very good specimens are only available here

Dissection: Get a wet specimen for dissection (usually following lab manual). Most of the investigation done here can't be done elsewhere.

Pathology: Sometimes focused on exclusively, or found in the anatomy, simulation, or dissection modules.. sometimes its own module.
Pre-lab quiz must be completed a day before the scheduled lab.

Tutorial:

Tutorial time is where you present or are given presentations on key topics.
Focus is on the course content, applied to a disease or general pathology that can be solved in a chemical/engineering context (biomeds+chem engs in my tutorial).

Questions and discussion takes place on avenue to learn to be awarded marks. Presentations themselves are marked and are usually in the form of powerpoint.

After-hours lab:

The lab is open pretty much 24/7 as far as I know.. its located in the hospital (hsc) right outside one of the exits of the hospital cafeteria. Access requires a lab card with an RFID chip in it which takes several weeks into the course to obtain (otherwise you have to pester the receptionist).

The lab consists of wet, plasticized, plastic, and other forms of specimens of deceased individuals. When you sign your consent in the weekly lab, you agree to treat the specimens with respect.. meaning no photos, etc. There are stations that focus on key areas (respiratory, brain, development, endocrine, lower limb, etc) with accompanying books that guide you through the system. There are radiographs, diagrams, pathology descriptions, and other things at each station.

The guides are great, but they're usually misplaced, and some specimens are hard to match (or even find!). During normal operating hours (business hours) there is always several lab technicians to help you out, and during study periods, teaching assistants and professors are around to guide you or answer your questions. There are outlets on the floor, tables, chairs, and dozens of textbooks at your disposal.

You're dealing with things that have biofluids on them, so nothing in the lab is 'clean', so there are gloves there you can wear, and handwashing stations available.

Course Material:

• Textbook - highly optional (never bought it)
• Lab manual -optional, but useful to study with and guide you in labs; can share with friend (bought it)
• Lecture notes / videos -mandatory! (used a lot)
• Supplementary Notes on macanatomy (used seldom)
• Avenue discussion (used seldom)
• HSC Lab -used a lot! (for specimens)

Examination:

Laborator pre-quiz + attendance (pre-lab quiz mark awarded if attendance mark is, otherwise you get a 0)
Tutorial presentation + attendance
Multiple choice midterm
Practical 'bellringer' midterm
Multiple choice examination

Overall impression:

Favourite course out of every course I've taken at McMaster.
Course lectures are flawless and comprehensible.
Professors and TAs are very enthusastic.
Out-of-class studying (in the anatomy lab) is fun and interesting.
All content is in some way relevant to real life and is immediately appliciable.

Its an intense course to take if you were to select it as an elective, but definately enjoyable.

A major negative is that lots of time needs to be spent in the lab to get a high grade on the practical component.

Amazing , thank you !

Definitely agree with what was said with regard to this course. Very interesting and hands-on material that is so applicable to everyday life. I am currently taking the course so I can't vouch for what is to come but it has been swell so far.

The course does require a lot of time and effort into learning the concepts but it is well-structured and the notes/audio are great. I don't go to all lectures as I find it is a lot of information to grasp in one sitting, so I have been writing my own notes after lecture while listening to the audio with the slides.

Though there is a crap-load of info to pick-up, it's best to attack it from a concept and function point of view, rather than memorizing everything little detail. Some of the questions on the midterm dealt with specific topics, but the majority of the questions were basically set-up to see whether you knew the general idea of a particular process.

The bi-weekly labs are still optional and ungraded but they have quizzes at the end of each lab worth 6% of your final grade. There are five labs so this works out to be 30% of your final... pretty hefty. The quizzes are composed of seven questions relating to information from five recent lectures, lab question, and one safety question. It's a pain, but this keeps people from falling behind... haha

The tutorials are super chill and the TAs are very helpful. They know their stuff and go out of their way to make sure that you understand whatever you are confused with.

All-in-all, very interesting course and I wish that I had more time to spend on it. Also, Dr. Ball is also a great resource as he is usually hanging around the main lab in the Heath Science Building, and is very helpful.

Enjoy!

After enduring the final, all I have to to say is, prepare for the bellringer in advance as it will greatly help you identify all of the obscure things they will ask you about. I went to the lab once every week until midterms rolled in then I stopped. Definitely regret that. Anyway, the multiple choice is not that bad, but I can still hear that damn bell going off!

Did they actually give pdfs/powerpoints of the lectures, so you could print them out and does anyone still have them?

Originally Posted by MacPack

Did they actually give pdfs/powerpoints of the lectures, so you could print them out and does anyone still have them?

It's a wack of stuff and pretty overwhelming if you don't have someone going through it with you. You're better off checking out some of the lecture recordings+slides from previous years, if you want a taste.

http://macanatomy.mcmaster.c a/inde...3&Ite mid=172

And yes, they usually posted the slides a couple days before the lectures (prof dependent) so you could have a look (if you had time... which never happened) and print them out.

The prof's go pretty fast in lecture so if you make it out to class, I'd suggest bringing a laptop with the slides in PowerPoint and writing the notes underneath.