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A COMPARATIVE VETERINARY COURSE FOR PRE-VETERINARY STUDENTS
Students entering veterinary school are expected to adapt to a new learning environment and begin retaining volumes of information very quickly. These students arrive with learning strategies developed during their undergraduate studies which may not prove adequate for the speed and volume of learning required in veterinary school, and some subject areas might be quite foreign depending on the students’ academic background. Problems resulting from unfamiliar material being met with deficient learning strategies often become evident in first-year Anatomy courses. To address this issue, a Comparative Veterinary Anatomy course has been developed at the University of Arkansas for junior and senior pre-veterinary students. The objectives of this course are to familiarize students with anatomical structures of domestic animals as well as to develop critical learning strategies for success in future scientific careers, graduate programs, and professional school. The course utilizes didactic lectures, illustrative reference materials, and hands-on laboratory experiences with live animals, preserved specimens, and fresh cadavers. Course topics are reinforced by examinations requiring identification of anatomical structures in illustrations as well as on specimens. The course objectives, modes of instruction, and student evaluation are meant to closely resemble a first-year veterinary curriculum’s anatomy course in order to prepare students to succeed in such a course. In the two semesters the course has been offered, it has reached maximum capacity at 20 students. A survey was administered following the conclusion of the first semester asking students to describe the most valuable learning experiences during and outside of class. Nineteen of 20 students responded (95.0%). Eighty percent (80.0%) of respondents indicated that laboratory time spent examining live, preserved, and fresh dead specimens was the most valuable learning experience during class time. Sixty percent (60.0%) of respondents indicated that reviewing and/or recreating illustrations from the textbook was the most valuable learning experience outside of class.
Keywords: veterinary, anatomy