After learning about the skeletal system, Anatomy and Physiology students assembled human bones in the hallway on Friday, Dec. 3. The activity served as a time for the students to exercise their knowledge and continue to learn more with a hands-on approach.

“For three blocks, the students have worked on identifying a box of bones that contain a skull, pelvis, and two long bones, one of the arm and one of the leg,” science teacher Susan Seale said. “They had to determine the race, age, gender, and height of the person based on those four bones.”

The third block was when students got to construct a skeleton, putting together the individual bones.

“Since it’s Anatomy we need to know the bones and all about them so this is refreshing us and helping us learn,” Ashley Enyeart ‘17 said.

Although the assignment was related to what the class was learning, it still presented challenges since knowing how the bones go together is different than just looking at pictures of the human skeletal system in the textbook or labeling diagrams.

“I’ve learned that bones are very difficult to figure out and a lot about the placement,” Enyeart said. “The pelvis shape is really weird and difficult to figure out and ribs are a lot trickier than you think.”

Despite the problems the students encountered, they enjoyed the activity because of the value it had in helping them learn the skeletal system. Using a model helped the students understand how the bones join together and function.

“I enjoy these types of [hands-on] assignments because it helps us actually visualize and work with the bones instead of just looking at it one-dimensionally,” Caytie Jenkins ‘18 said. “It’s really interesting to look at these bones and see how they’re placed within our bodies and actually see what it’s like.”