BIOM20002: Human Structure & Function

The progressive quizzes, were as what you expected, one after each block (expect foundations) mostly MCQs/ EMQs (with the exception of the musculoskeletal block with a 6 mark extended response question).
The quizzes were fair, there were some issues with sone technical errors but otherwise they were fine.

The MST was online this semester; the average score being 85% with a mode of 39/40. As you can see the cohort scored very well on the MST, and this is due to the online nature of the assessment, being open-book most of the anatomy questions were straight-forward the physiology questions however really did test your conceptual understanding of the theory covered in weeks 1-6. If the MST is closed book I would recommending, revising using anki and study groups & for physiology getting a blank piece of paper and writing a feedback system / process without notes are good ways to revise.

The physiology assignment was conducted quite poorly online, obviously there was not much they could have done but my experience was quite poor. We just watched videos of how to use the equipment, results that we had to interpret and answer a series of questions (often long extended response questions) all questions were assigned a number of marks so that’s how you should guide the length of your response. The report is completed as a group, so divided the questions and then cross-check your member’s response. The individual quiz was a simple 10 MCQ on the coronary vessels (not covered in lectures) the virtual heart was kinda cool, but the assessment was not challenging.

The anatomy practical test was interesting, all MCQs with a pictures from the online anatomy workshops. The anatomy workshops all covered the anatomy covered in the lectures you go through stations of different features of certain anatomical systems (a demonstrator will guide you through structures and often ask you questions to identify a structure/function). The anatomy workshops online were conducted well, the demonstrators were nice and answered all questions. The anatomy practical tests, is explained in the GIT bonus workshop, whereby all the questions include a cadaveric diagram questions will ask you to identify structure, function but go beyond that and asks questions on relationships with other structures, some question pointed to structure X and asked what nerve innervates it. Michelle explains that the anatomy workshops learning outcomes should be used as a checklist of what is to be examined on the final test, and I agree the tests was fair and the learning outcomes were a good guide on what to expect. Only workshops 1-3 are assessed on the practical test, workshop 4 is examined in the exam.

The coordination of the subject was not perfect, there were some gaps in communication but the coordinators are very active on piazza and I encourage you all to be active on piazza ask questions (you will find that you will get to the point where they will say “we don’t know”- highlighting what little we know about the human body) but helping others is a great way of learning (it’s all anom so no one will know if you get the question wrong). HSF was a great subject I enjoyed learning the content, the lectures although not perfect did a sufficient subject in teaching us, motivating me to major in Physiology. HSF is defs the better of the two second year cores.

This subject has experienced significant changes in assessment, there has been a shift from a final high stake assessment to more progressive assessments with a final low stake assessment, many of us endorsed this change and it was much needed after the hell of MCB. These changes were planned prior COVID-19.

The subject is divided into six blocks which are foundations, neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, guts & gonads and therapeutics. With exception of musculoskeletal & therapeutics each blocks covered the relevant anatomy of that topic, then the corresponding physiology, the pharmacology component is taught in the end. Therefore, in contrast to MCB, in HSF it was a lot easier to examine the interrelationships between the different disciplines. Michelle was the best lecturer and broke down and taught anatomy very well.

Yes (but online semester)

Lecturer(s):

The foundations block as the name suggests is the background of each discipline you will examine the principles of feedback loops (physiology), principles of drug action (pharmacology) and embryonic origins, only the embryonic origins was examined in the MST, there is no quiz for block 1 so it starts of very breezy, the content here is setting the foundations for your further studies, the foundation blocks lasts for a week.

Block 2 is neuromuscular and it lasts for two weeks, you will delve deeply in to the anatomy of the brain and spinal cord and learning about the basis of the neural networks of the CNS & PNS then you will explore neurophysiology whereby action potential, neurotransmitter release and electrical excitation is covered. Yossi does a good job in breaking down this topic, it starts of challenging but once you get your head around it is actually pretty good, you will notice they always ask similar questions (e.g. if the intracellular concentration of K+ increases, what will happen to resting membrane potential, they will just change the ion or concentration to vary question) once you understand the principle of equilibrium it makes sense. If you struggle with this topic this of the cell as a box and ions are coming in and out (either by leak channels or voltage gated channels, and you will need to determine what will happened to resting membrane potential when certain concentrations are altered). Then you will look at the principles of muscle anatomy and the process of muscle contraction in the neuromuscular junction this was also well taught.
Best way to go about this topic is to make summary notes on the processes and memorise, ANKI will also be your best friend.

Block 3 is musculoskeletal this is completely anatomy based; Michelle covers the principles of anatomical structures and then Charlotte will delve deeply into back & vertical column, upper limb and lower limb. Learning about the anatomy was a lot of fun because we could see the muscles and feel the bones and be like (ohh that’s my radius, but my biceps brachi are kinda small XD). However, this year they decided to teach back & vertical column, upper limb and lower limb by online modules instead of fast-paced lectures (and again this was planned prior COVID) tbh I actually prefer that compared to lectures because I could go ay my own pace and I felt like I was actually learning better this way, but there was a major issue with the modules and that was that each module was allocated 2 lecture sessions (i.e. the modules were expected to take two hours of time) however many of us took a lot more than that, labelling each structure on your own takes time and the allocated time was not enough and many of us ended falling behind in the course. So although I liked the module I felt like being allocated only two hour wasn’t an accurate representation of the time required to view the content, after each module a live Q&A was done where we could ask questions directly to Charlotte and she would provide feedback from a quiz done after the module. Overall, the musculoskeletal block is taught well, but like I said many of us fell behind and it didn’t help that the MST was the week after musculoskeletal finished, so many of us didn’t start the week 6 content since we were catching up lower limb right before the MST ^_^

Block 4 is cardiorespiratory where you will explore the anatomy & physiology of the heart and lungs and how they interact with each other. It beings with looking at the anatomical principles of vessels and viscera, then the anatomy of the heart specially looking and the significance of its structure (pericardium) and then looking at the greater vessels, Michelle teaches the anatomy of heart really well and I enjoy this lecture series. Next you will look at cardiac physiology, the content was really interesting we learnt about what a heartbeat actually is, how blood is circulated, the cardiac action potential and how the ECG measures heart rate. However, Yossi didn’t teach this very well it was information overload his slides were quite bare but he a lot to say, to overcome this a transcript was provided which was super helpful since we didn’t have to pause the lecture every three seconds to get everything down, since the transcript was provided. Interrelating the anatomy & physiology of the heart was not difficult since both lectures will mention the opposite discipline in their explanations which was nice.

Block 5 is guts and gonads- a creative name whereby you will delve deeply into the anatomy and physiology of the reproductive, digestive and urinary system. The anatomy section was taught very well, and dare I say the best, Michelle breaks down abdominal walls and the digestive tract very well, it was clear she was passionate about this area of anatomy and I can confirm you will not struggle memorising the anatomy and she does a good job ringing in your brain, there was also an additional webinar that gave us a preview of what to expect in the anatomy practical test (I will discuss this later). Moving on to physiology reproductive physiology was the easiest to gauge with, Kristina although monotone was good at getting her message across (basically it is all hormonal regulation and feedback systems). Moving on to gastrointestinal physiology, this was easily the worst taught topic with many of us very confused with the lectures series the day before the final exam ^__^. The lecturer was unengaging, and with no learning outcomes it was hard to determine what the point of his lectures were (his slides were content heavy). So here is my advice this is what you need to know

A quick guide to language and argument analysis
HHD sample questions HHD 2019 Comprehensive examiner report analysis

We did not receive any past exams (the 2010-12 exams were available on the library website)

4 out of 5

Prescribed texts
Eizenberg, N., C. Briggs, C. Adams & G. Ahern.
General Anatomy: Principles and Applications.
Sydney: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Principles Of Human Anatomy And Physiology 2nd Asia-Pacific Edition Gerard J Tortora - Wiley Direct
I didn’t read much of the readings XD

The exam was split in 2 x 20% 1 hour exams (due to online nature of assessment- and were scheduled on two different dates, a week apart)
The first exam was an integrated short answer exam, it consists of anatomy and physiology questions from Block 5 and (10 marks for each discipline) and then followed by 2x integrated 20 marks questions integrating the three disciplines (anatomy, physiology and pharmacology) therefore it is important that upon completing block 6 you create flowcharts/mindmaps/links of how therapeutics links with physiology which links with anatomy, the questions were fair and one of them was predictable my main tip for revising is making your own integrated questions based of the interrelationships you have created.
The second exam was a multiple choice exam of 60 questions covering all blocks (but with a greater emphasises on block 5 & 6) with a smaller exam not everything was examined so as long as you cover all groups (especially blocks 5 & 6) you should be fine!

6x 1 hour lectures per week (usually, 2 x 2 hour lectures + 2 x 1 hour lecture)
4 x 2 hour anatomy practicals (optional- but is now introduced in assessment, so I recommend attending)
Physiology practical (since this was completed online in 2020 I am not sure how many hours it would be on-campus but I would say ~2-3 hours)

2020 Semester 2
*Note: since I completed this subject in the online COVID-19 semester some of my comments may not be applicable

H1

Written laboratory report (1000 words, 10%);
Two tests during semester (20% total, 10% each); and
Two 2-hr end of semester exams (70% total, 35% each)

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