A new way to teach an old topic: the cadaver-based anatomy short course for high school students.

An outreach program has been developed at the Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University (NIU), that offers an intensive short course in human gross anatomy to high school students and their teachers. Prior to the short course, the high school teachers attend a laboratory orientation, view the facilities, and then develop a syllabus suitable for the class needs. When the students arrive, they spend between 1 and 2 days rotating through five different work stations. Using their syllabus, they identify and learn the function of various structures on human cadavers and models. Evaluation and content testing of 143 students demonstrated a significant degree of enthusiasm and retention of the syllabus material at the end of the course. All teachers who participated in the program indicated that they wish to return the following year and new groups have already applied to attend. The results of the program demonstrate ways that universities can generate excitement about science and learning at the high school level. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.