The A&P Professor

Dr. Staci Johnson joins host Kevin Patton for a chat about how she uses ungrading with standards-based grading in her anatomy and physiology course. What is ungrading? Can one ease into it? Does it work? Plus, a related Book Club recommendation! 00:00 | Introduction 00:48 | Ungrading 03:05 | Sponsored by AAA 03:41 | Dr. Staci Johnson 24:06 | Sponsored by HAPI 24:55 | More Ungrading 45:12 | Sponsor...

Are there really no more discoveries in human anatomy? In this episode, I'll review some recent discoveries: the rise of the fabella, macrophage barriers, the interstitium, button and zipper junctions, lymph node micro-organs, new vessels in bones, and tubarial salivary glands. 00:00 | Introduction 00:41 | Is Anatomy Finished? 03:44 | Sponsored by AAA 04:16 | Rise of the Fabella 11:52 | Sponsored...

Krista Rompolski joins us for another Journal Club episode—bringing us a study about how students change answers on their tests. Is it better for a student to change their multiple choice response or to avoid doing that? The answer may surprise you! 00:00 | Introduction 00:45 | Journal Club 03:21 | Sponsored by AAA 03:53 | Article Summary 09:13 | Sponsored by HAPI 10:00 | Should Students Change An...

Can we create a course that ensures a student is proficient in all concept groups and not just in some ? Where everyone who passes is at a B+ level of proficiency (or better)? In this episode, host Kevin Patton describes his experiment with what he calls proficiency grading. And we have new and appropriately controversial selection for The A&P Professor Book Club: The One World School House by Sal...

Can you believe it? Even more questions about my wacky testing scheme are answered in this episode—this time regarding stats demonstrating effectiveness of these strategies. I also talk about gray hair turning brown, naturally, why we do NOT want our students to master A&P concepts , and why we want to become the hippocampus. One of the weirdest episodes yet! 00:00 | Introduction 00:42 | Growing i...

Have you ever really considered the actual meaning that word "normal" in the context of teaching anatomy and physiology? Is it even meaningful at all? We explore that in the context of human body temperature in Episode 101. And I give some practical tips as we continue our conversation about my open, online, randomized testing scheme. 0:00:00 | Introduction 0:00:47 | What Does Normal Mean? 0:08:32...

After getting some questions after the previous episode, host Kevin Patton continues his discussion of his wacky scheme of open online testing. Not unrelated is a new entry of an old book into The A&P Professor Book Club —it's Ken Bain's classic book What The Best College Teachers Do. And we celebrate the one hundredth episode of this podcast! 0:00:00 | Introduction 0:00:42 | 100th Episode! 0:09:4...

In this episode, I answer a bunch of questions from Jerry Anzalone about the whacky strategies I have for testing in the A&P course. I discuss open online tests with multiple attempts, cumulative testing, pre-tests, test integrity, and much more. A virtual roundup of oddities! 0:00:00 | Introduction 0:00:54 | Quizzed About Tests 0:05:45 | Retaking Tests 0:29:37 | More on Retaking Tests 0:36:33 | S...

Students often ignore published learning objectives , but we often use subtle clues to help them understand what they need to know. In this episode, Kevin Patton discusses how to be less subtle about that, while also teaching our students how to spot important clues. That elephant in the room? It's the textbook. Cilia are amazing and vital. In COVID-19 , we see how cilia damage can kill us. Did yo...

We faculty rarely talk about how to use textbooks effectively. Not with each other, not with students, not with anybody. And we've probably not ever had any training in how to use what is a key tool in teaching and learning the typical A&P course. This episode solves that problem! 00:00 | Introduction 00:46 | More Textbook Tricks 03:20 | Transparency 06:46 | Sponsored by AAA 08:04 | Read and Raid...

We continue our two-part series that explores simple ways that we can make our teaching slides more engaging —and therefore more effective for learning. Let's leave behind those boring slide templates and make our presentations work better for our lectures, case studies, labs, and other learning activities. 00:00 | Introduction 00:46 | Previous Slide Tricks 06:23 | Sponsored by AAA 07:36 | Proper...

Everybody loves to hate teaching with slides. But maybe that's because we've not fully developed our skills! Host Kevin Patton build on previous advice to improve our mastery of the slide-of-hand we need for effective learning. Let's turn that hate into love! This is the first of a two-episode series. 00:00 | Introduction 00:58 | Buy One, Get One 02:06  | I Need Help! 10:20 | Sponsored by AAA 11:4...

Oh, that huge A&P textbook I teach from! Do I really need to cover all of it? Host Kevin Patton discusses his take on this age-old problem. Does the color of my marking pen send a signal that I don't want to send to my students? A breakthrough in understanding how teeth sense cold. And what in the world is a tunneling nanotube —and can I get one at my local hardware store? Greek names for SARS-CoV...

Weight stigma among health professionals is a form of discrimination that can have serious consequences in the lives of people who are overweight or obese. These folks are therefore often pre-judged as being difficult patients, for example. Krista Rompolski joins us for a Journal Club episode, where we discuss a paper on how attitudes about large body donors may contribute to weight stigma among h...

Episode 92 is all about how we can use customer-service concepts in education. Tune in and hear Kevin Patton discuss the importance of being a good listener and empathetic responder. You'll also hear about new research that shows not all plaques are bad actors when it comes to Alzheimer disease. And finally, find out how to get free almost-daily updates on life science, teaching, and learning! 00:...

Burnout is a serious issue that can affect your health, relationships, and job performance. It's important to know the signs of burnout so you can take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. But if you do experience burnout, don't panic! There are ways for you to get back on track and feel good again. Listen to this episode of The A&P Professor with Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark about how...

Episode 90 of The A&P Professor podcast is a thematic smörgåsbord, full of tasty tidbits to share with students and colleagues. Host Kevin Patton talks about dealing with resistance when we try to take bold steps in teaching. Is note taking better with a paper or an electronic device? The effects of diluting blood plasma on aging (don't try this at home).And the phenomenon of pandemic weight chang...

Host Kevin Patton outlines several new discoveries, including the function of background noise in the brain , how exercise triggers immunity, a possible blood marker for longevity, and how mitochondria are organized during cell division. And he discusses how easy animation effects can help students focus on important elements of the story of anatomy and physiology. 00:00 | Quotation & Intro 00:47...

Ever wonder why topics in A&P seem to have a uniform order of topics in all the courses & textbooks? Host Kevin Patton discusses the proper order of those concepts. We continue the discussion of gamification , including a focus on leaderboards. And we tackle why pandemic learning causes students to lament that they have to teach themselves. 00:00 | Quotation & Intro 00:44 | More on Gamification 06...

Allowing students to earn badges in the A&P course provides motivation to master all the concepts and also provides granular documentation of learning beyond the transcripted course grade. Host Kevin Patton shares his experience, along with a discussion of skin color in teaching future health professionals and the use of refresher tests to get students ready for their A&P course. 00:00 | Quotation...

In his annual look back at this podcast, host Kevin Patton reviews what we learned this year in A&P teaching. Which was a lot! He also looks ahead to what to expect in teaching—and in the podcast—as we go forward. 00:49 | Looking Back 10:15  | Those Darn Sponsor Messages 14:40  | There's More! 22:49  | Psychic Predictions 38:30 | TAPP Community 47:02  | TAPP Education | TAPP-ed 51:34 | Our Complex...

Host Kevin Patton continues the discussion about student evaluations of teaching (SETs) with a set of strategies to make them work better, or at least mitigate some of the potentially bad or ugly outcomes. There are things we can do proactively before a SET, actively during a SET, and reactively after a SET. Listen to hear them all! 00:00 | Quotation 00:57 | Student Evaluation of Teaching: Part II...

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are problematic in many ways—but perhaps useful in other ways. Host Kevin Patton discusses the good, the bad, and the ugly. What are the issues and what's behind those issues? 00:47 | Student Evaluation of Teaching (intro) 02:28  | Share the Fun: Refer & Earn 05:37  | The Good 08:39  | Sponsored by AAA 10:12 | The Bad 26:10  | Sponsored by HAPI 28:13 | The Ug...

Krista Rompolski again joins host Kevin Patton for a Journal Club episode to discuss a study of whether student feelings of how much they learn accurately reflect their actual learning. What were the results and how do they impact the effectiveness of our courses? 00:46 | Kevin & Krista: Journal Club 02:43  | Sponsored by AAA 04:00 | Article Summary 09:52  | Sponsored by HAPI 11:36 | Feeling of Le...

In this episode, we have a chat with Roy Meals, author of Bones: Inside and Out. We discuss what our students should know about bones and how that fits into their journey as learners. And we talk about how to make complex topics make sense to our students. Grab a drink and turn up the volume, we're going to tell some bone stories! 00:46 | Dr. Roy A. Meals MD 03:30  | Sponsored by AAA 04:21 | Stude...