Description:
<jats:sec><jats:label /><jats:p>Some schools of Medicine are giving 3D‐skull models to students. Those models can be taken home to improve the association, memorization, and integration of structures and function in the learning process. On the other hand, studies conducted on Healthcare students reported that the most common learning styles are kinesthetic and visual.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>The problem</jats:title><jats:p>The course BIO 201 Laboratory (Anatomy and Physiology I) offers multiple topics to support lectures in a span of 15–16 weeks but with typically only one 2–3 hour session per week. In the chapters of Bones, Muscles, and Joints, the time in the lab in which the student is exposed to those materials is about three to five Labs in the semester. At that time, the student must memorize multiple structures and relate them with their function (physiological movements). Students are studying with the help of 3D models (skeleton and isolated bones) in the Lab, and 2D‐images (book or computer). In some institutions, BIO 201 labs can have digital support with 2D‐images projected to a 3D‐image, a significant advance. However, the learning style plays an essential role in healthcare students.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>The Survey</jats:title><jats:p>A voluntary survey was conducted in the BIO 201 class in Fall 2019. Of 118 students in the class, 74 students answered the survey. The primordial Learning style was 66.2% visual followed by a 25% kinesthetic. Moreover, from all the groups, 76.4% reported having difficulties in learning Bones, muscles, and joints. Interestingly, from the students having difficulties in the learning, 70.9% answered having problems to transform 2D‐images into 3D structures (visualize and identify structures in bones and 3D models). Let us remember, in most institutions, 3D models only are accessible in Lab time, and schedules on labs are not always ideal for students for extra‐reviews. In our survey, 70.5% students are studying at home with 2D‐image (book and or computer) and 19.7% from videos. Then, how can we bring bones, joints, and muscles to students with those difficulties?</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>The feasible solution</jats:title><jats:p>Real 3D‐bones are expensive and bulky. The alternative is to use a 3D printer as a tool to prepare a set of bones for students. The quality these days is fantastic; bones can show features and students can mark them to identify origin and insertion of muscles. A 3D‐printed bones set can be reused and easily repaired in case of loss. 97.3% of students are willing to use them at home, and 98.6% of the group consider it an excellent tool for helping them to learn.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>We believe that 3D‐printed bone support in the BIO 201 course can help students with difficulties in the transformation from 2D‐images to 3D‐structures. It is an easy access tool and accepted by students, cheap, reusable and replaceable in case of loss. Students can easily identify a structure in the 3D models.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:label /><jats:fig><jats:caption><jats:p>Studying Bones, Joints and Muscles with 3D‐Printed Models at Home.</jats:p></jats:caption><jats:graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mimetype="image/png" position="anchor" specific-use="enlarged-web-image" xlink:href="graphic/fsb2202034s100726-fig-0001-m.png"><jats:alt-text>Figure 1</jats:alt-text></jats:graphic></jats:fig></jats:sec>