Subject Code/Name: DEV2022 - Principles of Organ and Body DesignWorkload:- 2x 1-hr lectures
- 1x 3-hr lab
Assessment:- 8x 3.125% labs - 25%
- MST - 25%
- Exam - 50%
Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.
Past exams available: Nope. However, a practice Moodle quiz was available well in advance of the exam.
Textbook Recommendation: Textbooks in this unit were fucking brilliant.
These are the ones that are officially prescribed or recommended for the unit:
- Functional Histology 2nd Edition - Jeffrey Kerr
- General Anatomy - Principles and Applications - Eizenberg, Briggs, Adams and Ahern
- Human Embryology and Developmental Biology 5th Edition - Carlson. You might have a copy of this from DEV2011.
However, on top of these I went and got myself a copy of
Gray's Anatomy 40th Edition. I did this because a) I could get it for cheap and b) it is by far the most in-depth, comprehensive anatomy text available. As someone with a keen interest in anatomy, this text was a great reference for when I had questions beyond the scope of lectures, or when I wanted some extra explanations on any topic I didn't fully understand at first (*cough* foetal circulation *cough*).
As always, I find that the best way of getting hard-copy textbooks as cheap as possible (which usually isn't saying much) is to get the ISBN of the book and search for it at booko.com.au, which compares prices for you.
Lecturer(s):- Dr Chantal Hoppe (also the unit co-ordinator)
- A/Prof Norman Eizenberg
- A/Prof Jane Black
- Prof Richard Harding
- Dr Helen Abud
- Dr Ian Smyth
- Dr Foula Sozo
- Dr Oksan Gezmish
- Dr Matilda Haas
- Dr Justin Adams
- Dr Dagmar Wilhelm
Year & Semester of completion: Sem 2, 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5.
10 out of 5! (Yes, I can do that).
Comments:OverviewThis is an absolutely superb unit in every way possible. The unit organisation and coordination was on-point, learning objectives were always clear and unambiguous, the lectures were all incredibly engaging, the labs were brilliant, really informative and fun and the teaching staff were of supremely high quality. I have absolutely no reservation in saying that DEV2022 is the best all-round unit offered by Monash.
LecturesAs above, the lecture series was - to me, anyway - some of the most interesting stuff I have ever studied before. Every lecturer was engaging and the subject material was perfectly aligned with my interests. Put it this way: Even with my very shitty lecture attendance, I was always keen to go to a DEV2022 lecture. In fact, the DEV2022 lectures have made up more than half of the lectures I've attended this year (lol).
One of the first things this unit did to get on my good side was, prior to the start of semester, to cancel one of the lectures scheduled each week. It just so happens that the cancelled lecture would have been my only 8am start. I will be forever grateful for just that
.
This is at heart an anatomy course, though it integrates a lot of other stuff such as embryology and histology, and the unit has a fairly clinical focus (i.e. a lot of the labs are focused around pathologies and their anatomical basis).
The lecture series is broken up as such:
- Weeks 1-3: Body Plan and Musculoskeletal Anatomy
- Weeks 4-5: Respiratory and Cardiac Anatomy
- Weeks 6-8: Gastrointestinal and Visceral Anatomy
- Week 9: Nervous System Anatomy
- Week 10-11: Genito-urninary Anatomy
- Week 12: Semester review
And each block of lectures has 1-2 associated labs.
LabsMuch like the lectures, the labs were superb. Honestly, the tutors and other teaching staff in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology are the best I've ever had. Every lab was a pleasure, and the lab activities in each lab were varied enough such that it was easy to get involved in discussion with tutors and hard to get bored.
There were 8 labs throughout the semester:
- Week 1: Intro to Pracs/Intro to Body Plans
- Week 2: Body Plans
- Week 3: Musculoskeletal System
- Week 4: Mid-semester test tips and techniques (not an actual lab, but there was some theory reviewed - especially histology
- Week 5: Heart Anatomy and Development
- Week 6: Respiratory Anatomy and Development
- Week 7: Gastrointestinal Tract Structure and Development
- Week 8: Mid-semester test
- Week 9: Nervous System Anatomy and Development
- Week 10: Reproductive and Endocrine Systems
- Week 11: Renal Structure and Development (<-- that's what was scheduled anyway. Instead, we did a group-based circuit-like "flag race" using gross anatomy specimens to review semester content. It was really fun )
- Week 12: No lab
Assessed labs are bolded.
The labs were often broken into 2-3 parts; usually a dissection + a tutorial and/or a semi-self-directed learning session. I really enjoyed all of these components; the dissections were really helpful in learning gross anatomy, while the tute/semi-SDL component helped teach some of the course material that would be difficult to do a devoted lab on, e.g. embryology/subcellular developmental biological processes.
As above, the lab tutors were really friendly, helpful and keen to see you do well. You'll know many of them from DEV2011 too, so it's nice to have some familiar non-student faces in the labs.
As well as the formal labs, the teaching staff offered DEV2022 students the opportunity to observe dissected cadavers so as to better understand systems anatomy (as opposed to the gross anatomical approach in most of the labs). If this is still offered when you (the reader) do the unit - which it should, as it was a resounding success - then I highly recommend taking part in some of them. It really helped cement several concepts in my mind.
Other in-semester assessmentThe only other piece of in-semester assessment in DEV2022 is the mid-semester test, worth 25%. This is a combination of SAQs and two mini-essay type questions, assessing all course material up to that point. The two long-form questions specifically test the histology component of DEV2022; students are given 1 of 5 histological slides from tissue types looked at throughout the semester, and the two mini-essays required us to write about the histological, structural, pathological and developmental features of the tissue type in the slide.
I had expected the MST to be much harder than it actually was - with some decent study it's not at all hard to do well even though a large volume of course information is tested.
ExamGiven that this is an anatomy course, there is a
lot of assessable information. Luckily, the final exam for DEV2022 (50%) is all MCQs, which means that although you do need to know basically all the course content in significant detail, there is the chance for you to use anatomical logic to work out the solution to things you might not know.
As above, the exam is all MCQs, consisting of approx. 85 (if I recall correctly) questions in 3 hours. I finished the exam for the first time in 1.5 hours, even after spending a lot of time thinking about several questions. This is definitely an exam that you'd want time to go over a couple more times (as has been my experience with past MCQ exams).
Some parts of this exam were tricky, but I can't say that it was ever unfair in the amount of detail required. With proper, structured revision you shouldn't have any trouble scoring well.
Final commentsIf at some point down the track I end up working in medicine, it will partially have been because of this unit. It was a real eye-opener for me in terms of how I enjoy the clinical side of science most of all.
This really does have all the hallmarks of a fantastic unit. I might be biased because I found it so incredibly interesting, but from a structural and organisational standpoint it was superior to any other unit I've done. This is a core compulsory unit in the Developmental Biology major, so anyone thinking of doing that major is in for a treat!