Introducing My AP Capstone Research Project
- Chase Noteware
- Oct 27, 2024
- 3 min read
This year, I am participating a my school’s AP Capstone Research Project Class. My teacher and I decided to focus on a new tool we got: the Anatomage Table. If you haven’t heard about this new device, it is a highly advanced, interactive 3D anatomy visualization system used in medical education and healthcare training. Resembling a large touchscreen table, it allows students, educators, and medical professionals to explore human anatomy in incredible detail, from muscles and bones to organs and blood vessels. Users can rotate, zoom, and dissect virtual bodies layer by layer, offering a hands-on experience without the need for physical cadavers. With real-time imaging, preloaded case studies, and clinical examples, the Anatomage Table provides an immersive, realistic learning environment for studying complex anatomical structures and relationships.
Below is my preliminary title and research rationale.
Preliminary Title:
Adapting pedagogy in a secondary anatomy classroom: The impact of interactive learning tools, such as the Anatomage Table, on the cognitive outcomes of high school students compared to passive instructional techniques.
Research Rational:
The Anatomage Table broke into the scene of anatomical learning recently and now resides at many academic institutions, facilitating hands-on learning. Researchers have conducted experiments on its efficiency, but no studies focus specifically on high school students. A 2014 study evaluated students' perceptions of the Anatomage table as a learning tool, concluding that “students rated the [table] more useful for understanding the relative size… and relationships between organs in contrast [to] correct anatomical terminology” (Fyfe, 2018, p.47, VOL. 19). While Fyfe’s research did confirm students responded well to the tool, it did not incorporate any data to establish an increase in comprehension. Testing, a standard evaluation technique in classrooms to determine proficiency, has many desirable difficulties (Bjork, 1994) that foster long-term learning in students. A commentary published by the Educational Psychology Review defines learning as “the ability to retrieve and apply… information over time and in different contexts” (Murphy, 2023, VOL. 35). In this context, a series of tests will authenticate students improved learning of anatomy due to the interactive nature of the Anatomage Table. Tests will be needed to evaluate the tool’s effectiveness accurately at a secondary level, but its desirable difficulties (Bjork, 1994) will demonstrate the Table’s constraints. Similarly, Hoptokin High School received an Anatomage Table, and junior Srilakshmi Venkatesan raved about the table’s ability to help her connect “different systems and anatomical functions” and “overcome that [confusion].” Again, no research has been conducted to prove the table’s actual effect on learning, but it is a common belief that cadavers provide the most applicable aid in anatomy classes. Traditionally, the use of cadavers facilitated medical students' ability to comprehend the human body on a real-life scale, but the Anatomage Table could reduce the need for them. Embalming a cadaver requires 2 hours, $2000, and an embalmer with 5 years of experience and schooling. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, Columbia’s Medical School uses 40 cadavers a year but struggles with a donor shortage (Kalter, 2019). While the Anatomage Table costs approximately $200,000 upfront, the technology will last for decades – thus paying itself off over time. These innovations will help students replicate the learning done with cadavers for a cheaper, more humane, and easier way of learning. Cadaver usage is essential to all anatomy classes, and Andrea Winkelmann’s summary of 14 different experiments conducted around various forms of cadaver-based learning techniques declared that 12/14 experiments claimed advantages for traditional or prosection dissection, prompting statistically significant evidence that anatomical learning requires some form of dissection. Along with that research proving the viability of dissection, Guy Baratz’s 2019 research compared learning advanced anatomy with the Oculus Rift’s virtual reality technology with the Anatomage Table. His results from 16 volunteers attending Case Western Reserve University concluded that the participants in the Anatomage lab reported higher scores on the tests, self-reported scores of information learned, and excitement for the next lab.
You can check out the Anatomage Table here:
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