Learning Tissues Bird by Bird

What?!  Bird by bird?Yep—that's the best way to begin learning how to distinguish the various tissue types of the body. The bird-by-bird approach to learning anatomy is based on two major concepts, described here.Chunk the ListThe first was described by author Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life:"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my  brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.'"Wow—doesn't that sound just like the feeling you have when you are given a list of human tissues to learn in your A&P course?  With crazy names like nonkeratinized stratified squamous epithelium, specimens that look like the abstract art exhibit at the art museum, and an insanely short time frame to master them all, of course it feels overwhelming.Really, that's the best way to tackle the tissues.  Just get started!  And take them one by one, rather than thinking about the whole long list of them facing you.  You'll find that by chunking the list this way, it's not so paralyzing.  It ...
Source: The A and P Student - Category: Medical Students Tags: analogy/model anatomy histology Lion Den muscle skeletal study tips Source Type: blogs