Honors Comparative Anatomy and Physiology (HCAP), is a junior and senior elective class offered by Biology teacher, Ms. Scully. HCAP teaches students about evolution of the animal kingdom through dissections and critical thinking. The curriculum uses comparative anatomy to make connections between animal and human anatomy.
To begin the year, students are learning the key concepts of evolution, using different lines of evidence to support the theory and mechanisms of evolution. Using this, students dissected a cow eye while learning about the complex eye you can see in humans and octopi today.
Throughout the class, students will work their way through the body anatomy, from the brain and neurons, to skeletal structure and the digestive system, using dissections of various organisms to help them understand and make connections. HCAP is a very hands-on and interactive class, requiring students to be fully engaged in the environment around them and to use all of their senses. By the end of the class, students will be able to put their knowledge to use in a clinical setting, requiring them to design a surgery with devices to fix a congenital heart defect (problem with the heart structure) as their final project.
HCAP is a useful class for students interested in going into the medical field (including nursing, physician, medical research, sports medicine, physical therapy, bioengineering, and more). In collaboration with CCC (Clackamas Community College), students can earn college credit at a lower price, and experience what it is like to take a college level course.
There’s so many different experiences offered within just a two-trimester long class, with guest speakers (Northwest Nogging in Winter), field trips (visit the PSU campus and anatomy lab), and a hands-on learning experience. The class continues to be taught by Ms. Scully, and will be offered next year on forecasting forms. Make sure to visit Ms. Scully in room E215 to ask questions and see what Honors Comparative Anatomy and Physiology might be able to offer you!
