Category: Teaching

  • Tracking our Graduates’ Project

    The College of Medicine, Swansea University is interested in understanding what happens to our graduates when they leave their undergraduate medical training. I’m not directly involved with this project, but I’m spreading the word. If you’re in your final year of study, or if you started your studies in 2006 and you were a Graduate…

  • Week 222: spinal tracts

    Ouch – we had some monster neuroanatomy learning outcomes this week. From an anatomy perspective we want students to be aware of the major motor and sensory tracts of the spinal cord, what type of information they carry, where they run (and where they cross over from one side to the other), and what would…

  • Week 219 – blood circulation in the lungs

    The Christmas holidays are over and we’re back to teaching (and learning). This week we went back to the lungs and added a little detail by looking at the pulmonary vessels in more detail, and adding the bronchial arteries and veins to this. As this is a teaching week about pulmonary embolism this anatomy should…

  • Week 107 – kidneys, nearby viscera and the nervous system

    On Monday we spent the morning looking at the kidneys and suprarenal (or adrenal) glands. You saw their anatomy and histology in other stations, but with me we had a quick look at the anterior visceral relationships of each kidney, and then talked about the overall scheme and structure of the nervous system. The kidneys…

  • Week 104: the neck

    In anatomy today we jumped between different topics in neck anatomy, filling gaps, as it were. This was probably a tougher session than previous weeks, and it might take you a while to get through this week’s learning outcomes. Anatomy will take up a fair amount of your time this year, but it is an…

  • Autumn term, 2011

    Summer is over, students are back, and they’re looking a lot more eager and fresh faced than I feel. I’m starting year 2 off with the otic ganglion this afternoon, so that should break them down a little (sorry guys)! With the start of teaching I’m hitting the end of training. I’m in a taper…

  • Run!

    Running hasn’t been going very well for me this year. I made a decision to make some changes to my biomechanics over the winter that seem to have worked very well. Unfortunately I thought I could pick up the volume of running that I’d done in previous years and ripped my calves to bits. A…

  • Cardiovascular development and changes at birth

    On Monday I gave a double lecture. The first part was about cardiovascular embryology, and the heart in particular, and the second part was about the changes to the cardiovascular system that occur with birth and the baby’s first breath. The second part is normally delivered by Dr Geraint Morris, a consultant paediatrician and neonatologist…

  • Thalamus: Netter’s Concise Neuroanatomy

    Elsevier have a sample chapter of Netter’s Concise Neuroanatomy available for the thalamus, which I talked about today. It’s very nice, with the excellent illustrations that we’re used to and much of the relevant information about the thalamic nuclei and their motor, sensory and limbic system links summarised in tables. Have a look at the…

  • Neuroscience podcast 6: pain pathways

    The 6th podcast from Phil & me (sorry, Dr Phil Newton & Dr Samuel Webster) is up, live, available and downloadable. We talk about how sensations of pain are relayed to the brain and a little about how the brain perceives pain, phantom limb pain and referred pain. Phil also tells me how the brain…