Kourtney+S.

=media type="custom" key="412673"= This is an electronic portfolio used to display the projects, blogs, wikis, and quizzes that I have used so far this year to help me learn about anatomy and physiology. Each separate tool has contributed in a variety of ways to my education and understanding of the human body. These different artifacts have been completed over the course of one semester, and are gathered in this portfolio to showcase my progression over the four and a half months I have been in school so far this year. My classmates and myself have spent countless hours working on projects, blogs, and wikis in this class, and are proud to expose our work to the world wide web. I can only hope you, the reader, take away a good idea of the pride I have and the time I spent on the following items collected in this portfolio. =media type="custom" key="409137"= My name is Kourtney Scherrer and I am a junior at Faith Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School. I am a peer tutor and peer mediator at my school, and I also manage varsity boys soccer. I enrolled in anatomy and physiology because I aspire to be a doctor in the future. I plan on attending college in Hawaii, Boston, or California, completing my undergraduate studies majoring in pre-medicine. I then plan on attending medical school and completing an internship at a hospital the year after I graduate. With high hopes, I will become a resident and specialize in surgery. Anatomy & physiology is the building block of medicine and surgery, so I found it imperative that I took the course during my high school years. Next year I will take AP Biology, furthering my knowledge of human and living sciences. =media type="custom" key="409145"= media type="custom" key="412739" My tissues project was definitely the most time consuming and challenging project I completed this semester. I spent over two weeks straight working in class, and still had to work after school and at home on the project. To do this assignment, we had to create a non-linear power point, each slide having links to other slides in the presentation, pictures, facts, and a sound clip. Each of the forty six sound clips were roughly thirty to forty seconds long, and required a pre-written outline. During the time we were completing this project, we preformed a lab in class where we looked at different slides of tissues and took pictures of all the types of tissues. We then loaded the pictures on the computer and used them in our slideshow presentations. I learned about the main types of tissues and all of the separate subcategories that fall under the main tissues doing these activities. I learned what the functions are of the tissues and where they are found in the body. I plan to use this knowledge to help me in college when I have to take an anatomy course. I feel having some background information going into a class of that stature will help me immensely. =media type="custom" key="409153"= This brochure contains information about skin cancer and was designed to be similar to a brochure that would be found in a dermatologist’s office. To make this brochure, we researched information on skin cancer in class and created a pamphlet using Microsoft Publisher. I learned about the three types of skin cancer from this exercise and I also learned about treatment, prevention, and symptoms of the cancer. I plan to use this information to help myself, friends, and family prevent obtaining skin cancer. =media type="custom" key="409169"= Joint Webquest The Joint Webquest was a project we completed with a partner. My partner was Olivia Makinson, and together be created a wiki to teach the sixth grade class about joints. We researched joints in class and then were assigned a specific joint to write about. Our joint was the hip joint, and we explained on our page about the joint itself, and also about problems with the hip and hip replacement surgery. We added pictures, links, and a video to our page to not only better our education, but also the understanding of the sixth graders as well. From this research opportunity I learned about all of the different kinds of joints, and especially ball and socket joints because that was the type of joint we were assigned. I hope to use this information when I take an anatomy course in college, because I feel if I take a class of that stature some background information would be imperative. = = =media type="custom" key="409173"= [|Article Blog Entry] This blog entry was one that I found interesting to complete. For this particular entry, we had to find a health related article on the internet and read the article. In the blog, we were to summarize and reflect upon the article and post the link to the article we found. My article was on a medication that was used to help diabetes that was being recalled. Scientists had investigated the medication and found it led to heart attacks and heart disease. I will try to use the information I learned to help my grandfather, who suffers from diabetes, and aide him in making correct choices in his medication. =media type="custom" key="409181"= Functional MRI Wiki In this wiki, I worked with a partner to complete the tasks listed. Mitch Mountain and myself collaborated together to collect information on Functional MRIs. Our classmates and ourselves were assigned a type of medical imaging to research and we were to post the information we found in our wiki. This was one of the first assignments of the year, and Mitch and I were nervous to complete the wiki because we didn’t know Mr. Orr’s expectations for the assignment. I can use the information that we researched and the information from our other classmate’s research when I enter my internship and residency after graduate school in a hospital. =media type="custom" key="409203"= [|First Blog Entry] This was our first blog entry and was our first assignment in this class. I found this important because we had to state why we took Anatomy and Physiology. I used this opportunity to state my future goals and plans for college. This class has so far been interesting and lived up to my expectations of what I thought it would be like. I used the information in this blog to clearly define for myself what my goals are and I plan to look back on this sometime in the future to see if I achieved the goals I set for myself.

Muscle History
media type="custom" key="821049" Olivia Makinson and I worked together on this project. We had to research the backgrounds of Andreas Vesalius, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Gray, and Bartolomeo Eustachi as well as their artwork. We put the information together in a power point presentation. This task helped me understand the very beginnings of study in the field of anatomy and the first basic knowledge gained by people of the human body. This information is important to know because it is the foundation of the understanding of human anatomy and a definite landmark in science history.

Nervous System Wiki
Opiates in the Human Body In this task, I wrote on the wiki about the effects of opiates in the human body. It helped me re-cap what I had learned from the anatomy apprentice assignment (found below). It was interesting to learn about opiates, what they are, and how they work once they are consumed.

Anatomy Apprentice
For this task, we were arranged into groups to study a certain nervous system disorder. I was placed in a group with Kyle Fleurry and Roxy McKinley, and we studied the effects of opiates in the body. We created a powerpoint and presented a 10 minute presentation on our findings. We learned a lot in our research and now have a better understanding of how certain things in our brains work. media type="custom" key="821027"

Steroid Blog
[|Steroid Blog] In this blog assignment, we were to research the effects of steroids on the body. We asked to write our blog as if someone were offering us steroids, and we had to present our case as to whether or not we would use the steroids. After researching more about what steroids do the the body, I quickly realized how serious the effects would be. There were many more negatives than positives to taking steroids, and for myself, I would not take them. It was important for all of us in the class, especially the boys, to learn about the negative effects of steroids. We are commonly faced, as teenagers, with decisions that could really impact our lives, such as taking drugs. I believe that steroids are just as bad as drugs and now that we know the effects of steroids we can all make better decisions.

Sheep Heart Dissection
I was absent for the sheep heart dissection lab. While we were dissecting the cat, Mr. Orr instucted me on how to take the heart out of the cat. Once I got the heart out, Mr. Orr dissected it for me and walked me through the anatomy of the heart. This helped me understand what I had previously learned about the heart and brought my learning to a greater depth.

Cat Dissection
Lat Left Lung The final thing we did in anatomy this year was the cat dissection. I was paired with Mitch Mountain and David Sperry, and we won the rock, paper, scissors tournament to get the pregnant cat. This dissection rounded out everything we had learned during the course of the year. We dissected to find specific muscles, nerves, organs, veins, and arteries. It was interesting to finally see everything we had learned all put together in one being, instead of separately like we had learned them all year. This helped our understanding of the way everything is arranged and organized in the body as well as their orientations relative to other parts.

Final Reflection
This year in anatomy and physiology has taught me a great deal about the human body. Not only did I learn about what is in the body and where it is located, I also learned how everything works and how it all works together to make it possible for us to live. We learned everything from tissues to bones to muscles to nerves. It was a very interesting class and it was fun to do all of the dissections. We all had a great time on the field trip to the Bodies exhibit and learned a lot from the trip as well. This class will help me a great deal in AP biology next year as well as in college when I have to take an anatomy class. =media type="custom" key="412641"= I would like to thank you for reading my portfolio and reflecting upon my past work. I hope that next semester I will be able to work harder on my projects, blogs, wikis, and other assignments. This semester’s work that I have completed was tiring, challenging, and frustrating at times due to some technical difficulties. I am proud of my work and glad that I have gotten good grades on everything so far this semester. I hope to do as well next semester so I can make another portfolio like this one to model my assignments.