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The Human Body

“The human body has been called the microcosm of the universe, a little world of wonders and a monument of divine wisdom and power, sufficient to convince the most incredulous mind of the existence of the Great Designer.“ sermon by A.B. Simpson

Whether you are a believer or not, there is no denying that our bodies are incredible and fantastic wonders to behold. Studying the body can leave you humble not only because of the incredible mechanics, systems and organism that we understand but because of the vast amount that we have yet to understand.

Have you already embarked on your personal voyage of discovery? If so, whether you are in need of a free, searchable, database of medical mnemonics, wanting free anatomy diagramming software or wanting to test your knowledge through tutorials and quizzes, I hope that a few of these resources will help you along your journey.

INTERACTIVE LEARNING

The Visible Body – This is one of my favorite resources for studying anatomy. It goes into great detail but you can go as deep as you need to for your purposes.  It’s a 3-D online body you can rotate, zoom in and out, peel away layers and more.  I’ve seen something similar to this in museums, so to be able to do this from the comfort of your own home is awesome. You can try it for free for a limited time and if you like it, then it’s only $17.95 for 5 months.  Plenty of time for our purposes. I loved that I could give my younger students the feel for the complexities of the human body with a tool that is designed for pre-med students, nurses or other professionals and yet I had the flexibility to simplify it to our needs and still be able to hand the controls to them and have the easily explore further on their own.  Here’s a quick video on this to give you a better idea.

Anatomy & Physiology Revealed from is another similar site that allows the older student or professional to visualize anatomical relationships. This one, however, does include an audio pronunciation key of anatomical terms and each system includes MRI, CT and X-Ray images along with quizzes and lab practical exercises.  Here is a visual tour of this product.

Kids Health – Younger kids will love this website. It has many resources from information on staying healthy, to recipes, to a kids dictionary of medical words, to movies about asthma, getting a blood test, an x-ray or other, to games and more. But I’ve got to say that the videos were the biggest big hit with my seven-year-old daughter.  They provide a great introduction and review of the body and she wanted to watch them over and over. She especially loved the muscles video.

ADDING PICTURES, POSTERS

If you are looking for that perfect picture to explain a particular concept but can’t find the right poster, The Science Picture Company has the best 3-D science pictures on the net! They have everything from microscopic to a specific system and if they don’t have it, they’ll create one for you.

Don’t want 3-D?  Check out the Musculoskeletal Atlas for more than 80 neatly categorized, crisp, and clearly defined anatomical images and illustrations. Of course if you can’t find what you need here, the Wikimedia Commons media file repository of freely-licensed educational images, sounds and video clips content will surely have it.
Lastly, if you are not already using this enjoyable, basic book, called Start Exploring Gray’s Anatomy: A Fact Filled Coloring Book for beginners, then you might check it out. It’s a great way to cement those topics in your student’s mind while they enjoy coloring. Don’t have the book or want to supplement further?  Bartleby’s “Anatomy of the Human Body” webpage has the similar illustrations with their explanations based on the 1918 Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body book.