A loud and familiar buzz fills the clinical skills lab of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine as students huddle around a table, holding syringes, hoping not to set off the buzzer. No, the students aren’t playing the classic board game Operation. Instead, these veterinary students are practicing how to draw blood from a dog’s leg using a model retrofitted with the Operation buzzer. This is one of many models’ veterinary medical students use to apply their learning in a hands-on way.
“Studies show that sitting in a lecture hall is not very effective. Students do not retain much information because lectures are passive. Engaging students in learning activities improves outcomes,” says McLean Gunderson, a lecturer in the comparative biosciences department. “Models allow students to visualize content in 3D, making learning interactive.”
Students still watch lectures and read textbooks, but teaching models allow students to build upon what they have learned in class and make connections. Gunderson and colleagues have incorporated this active learning into multiple aspects of their courses, with models serving a variety of purposes – from understanding anatomy to practicing clinical skills.
Some models work to help students visualize systems and reinforce anatomy. Color-coded dog skeletons help students determine where muscles attach to bone and how they affect movement across joints. Students position model rope uteruses and foam kidneys to better understand the orientation of a female dogs’ reproductive organs or they work to arrange sewn esophagi, stomachs and intestines into place.
As the students practice, Gunderson and other instructors ask reflective questions to constructively facilitate students’ learning.
“We work hard to get them to understand the relevant anatomy and the relationship of various body systems. How are these structures interrelated?” Gunderson says.
Other models work on students’ technical skills. Students practice techniques to stabilize veins, withdraw blood and place IV catheters from tubes filled with red liquid. These tubes are fitted to both large and small animal models, from a dog’s leg to a cow’s tail. In the dog’s leg model, the Operation buzzer goes off when students hit a metal plate instead of the vein.
Silicone castration models allow students to practice full spays and neuters, from scrubbing and draping to suturing. These models can be placed inside a stuffed animal dog or cat, providing a new level of complexity to the procedure, and preparing them to perform surgical procedures on live animals in their third year of veterinary school.
Gunderson started creating these active learning models seven years ago, alongside instructional specialist Tina Wahl, lecturer Jessica Rippe and assistant teaching professor Karen Hershberger-Braker.
“Collectively, we design models to fill in gaps in knowledge or skill. Often our inspiration comes from asking ourselves how we can replicate things the way nature does it,” Gunderson says.
Once they have an idea, Gunderson uses their own technical skills to create these models inexpensively, with pourable plastic or household materials – like an old Operation game. Models are often replicated, allowing students to take them home and practice on their own.
Gunderson and colleagues throughout the school have seen the models’ impact on their students, improving their contextual understanding and preparing them to work with live animals.
“When we get the students actively involved, retention improves,” Gunderson says. “They can find relevance in the content and progress in a manner that works best for them.”
Britta Wellenstein
This article was featured in the Winter 2023-24 issue of On Call magazine.