I decided to take Comprehensive Anatomy and Physiology I (BIOL 301) to satisfy my organismal pillar. In this course, we were tasked with a semester long lab project that the individual groups got to design. In my group, we wanted to use FreeMoCap to analyze muscle movements when lifting objects of known and unknown weights. Throughout the project, we were unable to get the software fully working due to technical errors out of our control, but we learned a lot. My group partner and I were able to learn more about the connections between the brain and the muscles to understand how a person is able to grab objects. Our literature research focused on how these muscles contracted and what actually happens when we grab something off of a table (basically, how does your brain know how far the object is and then tell your muscles how far to reach and how much strength to put behind your grasp and the lifting of the object).
Even though we did not get quantitative results, the experience and knowledge I gained from that project is worth more to me than those results. I gained much experience in coding and learned how computer software works. I also learned more about the human body and found out how interested I am in the brain! I had never considered getting a specialty in neurology until this lab. This lab connected with other aspects of my college life at the time because I was still working in the lab with Dr. Franssen studying neurobiology. This lab helped me find literature to apply in the lab which not only help with expanding our research, but it helped me understand more of what we were doing and use that knowledge to lead our research lab. The only real challenge faced in this lab was us not being able to use the FreeMoCap software which stopped us from attaining any quantitative data.
Much of the information I learned in BIOL 250 helped me with this class. Without 250, I would not be able to understand how a cell works and apply that knowledge to this class when learning about other cell types. Also, BIOL 251 prepared me for finding a hole in research and using what I know in class to further advance our knowledge in those fields. This gave me the confidence to pursue such a difficult group project and overall gave me the tools necessary to present this in front of my class and at showcase.
The information I learned from this class about muscles and the brain has helped me tremendously with my new job as a medical scribe. Some of the patients we have seen have came in with neurological and musculoskeletal problems that I have been able to understand because of the research I did in 301. The information I learned in this class will also help me in my career as a physician and while I am in medical school. In addition, this lab sparked my interest in neurology an opened up another potential specialty I will likely pursue in my future as a physician.
Click here to view my BIOL 251 project.
Click here to view my BIOL 301 project.