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When Lance Paulman teaches the Carolina Master Scholars’ Adventures in Medicine each summer, he’s condensing 16 weeks of gross anatomy for medical students into a one-week summary for high-school students.
At the end of the week, he requires an even briefer recap from each student, a five-minute presentation on what he or she learned. Despite crunching the information tighter than a trash compacter, Paulman is continually impressed with what students absorb.
“I am constantly amazed at how some chance snippet of conversation will draw a student’s interest and drive him or her to research some part of medicine or education and present it in such a fashion that even I learn something new,” said Paulman, an associate professor who manages the School of Medicine’s Gift of Body Program, which provides cadavers for the gross anatomy course he teaches.
Adventures in Medicine is one of approximately 10 in the summer series that the Office of Academic Enrichment and Conferences administers. Paulman has overseen the medical program since it began in 2003 with a single session. This summer it was so popular there were two sessions, the last June 26-July 1.
“I think the fact that we have many more applicants than we have space in the program is also a good indicator that we are doing something right,” Paulman said.
Students get an introduction to the medical school and to dissection on the first full day, then move into anatomy sessions on regions such as the thorax and the abdomen. They get at least three afternoons dissecting cadavers.
“Some are eager, some are nervous, some find themselves unable to do actual dissection and merely watch,” Paulman said. “Without fail, by the end of the week, all the students have gained a great respect for the complexity of the human body, its parts, and workings, and also gain a new insight into just how hard the task of training and becoming a physician is.”
Judging by students’ reactions, dissection is exciting—but gross.
“I didn’t know we’d be dissecting human cadavers,” said Kaileen Yeh of Dreher High School in Columbia. “But it’s been an interesting experience, and it’s been fun, especially with all the goo and—whoooo—the fluids.”
Andrew Boggs, a homeschooled student from Lexington, also was surprised to find he’d be working with cadavers. “So I get here, and they say we’re going to cut up a dead person, and I’m like, whooooa. It’s not the frog that I’ve dissected. But I want to be an ER doctor, so it’s awesome.”
Paulman’s teaching style mixes in a healthy dose of humor and a running back-and-forth dialog with the students as questions fly in both directions.
He displays a thoracic X-ray and asks the students if they, or any doctor, can tell a patient’s gender from what they see. The trick, though, is that this patient is a woman who has been X-rayed with her clothes on, so the plastic sliders on her bra straps are visible to those who know to look for them.
“I love this one because people always feel like real heels after I show it to them,” he said. “There is nothing physically wrong with this patient.”
Later, there is another test to see if the students will realize two round “masses” are buttons, not tumors.
The point, Paulman said, is for students to learn—and to discover how much more they have to learn.
“What three words are the foundation of all human knowledge?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” a student responds correctly, though it’s not entirely clear if the answer is an epiphany or a surrender.
Regardless, Paulman says, “Thank you. ‘ I don’t know.’ When you start with ‘I don’t know,’ there’s nowhere to go but up. And until you can say, ‘I don’t know,’ there’s no way you can learn. You have to admit your ignorance before you can learn.”
7/05
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Lance Paulman helps high-school students bone up on anatomy during Adventures in Medicine.
