Balloon Brain

Balloon Brain

By Jonathan Pottle

Finding the Idea

Like many good ideas, this activity involved serendipity and borrowing from someone else. I found a balloon with brain structures drawn on it in the hallway of Shuksan Hall. It seemed like an engaging way of learning the general layout of the brain. I eventually found out that my colleague Heather Marrs dreamed up the balloon brain. I guess one of her students figured they were done with it..

Making the Brains

My Human Anatomy class has two-hour lecture periods and my exams take only half that. The balloon brain seemed like a nice way to cool down after such a rigorous challenge. Megan in the division office raised an eyebrow at the number of markers I needed, but I promised to bring them back.

It’s a pretty well-received activity, once they are convinced I am serious about it. Maybe “arts and crafts” and “anatomy class” aren’t an obvious pairing. I think it is a great way to map information from a textbook into three dimensions; anatomy isn’t flat images, after all.

Taking the Selfies

I like to give students credit for class activities, even the goofy ones. Most students have a phone equipped with a decent camera, so taking a selfie and uploading it as a Canvas assignment seemed like a neat way to record participation.

Some students are well-versed in selfies and embellished theirs a bit, or even took their brains to more scenic locations. It’s a fun assignment to grade.

All in all, I would call it a success. They did pretty well on the brain portion of the next exam.

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