Kings Synthetic Anatomy course development blog

Les taught our students how to use their sketchbooks with a sense of freedom - I could not have taken part because I would not have been able to cut-up my sketchbook! Les will have to take it easier on me. Our students produced an excellent series of 3D aorta prints. It was very hard for me to give out just one prize so we ended up with 6 prizes (and me out of pocket for a lot more than I had anticipated). Our fourth 3D printer arrived and it is a special one that can print 2 filaments. The printer got both Yohan and Shuangyi excited (something that I have seen before) and also somewhat challenged (now that I don't see too often).

During the Week 2 session the students learnt how to segment a high-contrast dataset and to print the resulting model at mini scale. We were using anonymised real patient data from Guy's hospital taken from MRI scans of children with congenital heart disease and coarctation of the aorta. The resulting 3D models were beautiful. We also learnt about creating objects using the FreeCAD software.

virtual heart surgery a first for me - working through new software is a learning curve and navigating through the body digitally is exciting but actual knowledge of anatomy is useful so that one doesn't get lost. The room we are working in is full of plastic models that are beyond odd.

Diary  /ˈdʌɪəri/  A book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences I used to keep a teaching diary - particularly with new modules and teaching - something to refer to the following year. Seems more appropriate to use blogspace this year. AM We started Day 1 with a fairly conventional powerpoint presentation - always a turn off and I think something that could be replaced with an interactive exercise next year. We managed to use the colour of the collaboration tables to organise the students effectively. As an experienced teacher, it immediately presented an unusual classroom in the number of tutors and technicians present. This made it feel unusual, special. Artists introduced themselves - maybe we should all introduce ourselves (students included) next year? For bridge building, we used the coloured collaboration tables to direct students into groups. The preallocated groups managed to absorb newcomers and cope with absentees so that each group wa...

Thinking about the role of reflection in this project has got me looking through some past presentations I have given to students. Recently while working with year 1 Textile Design students at Norwich NUA where I work as a Senior Lecturer I ran a workshop on the subject.  https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/17-10-17-reflective-practice   some of the questions we might ask are - what happened?  why did it happen?   what do I think about this?     what should I do as a result of this?   advice write often write freely - without hesitation write down stuff even if it's  not relevant - who knows?

Echo Les' comments - wonderful to be with such a positive and skilled bunch of people - and in such a surreal setting! Loved watching the tutors responding to the spaghetti brief - oddly mirroring our first session - one team just plonked the bag of spaghetti down and spent more time on the discourse, another lot used hot water to make the material stick together and made something beautuful and strange to look at, and the other team took a structural engineering approach - used the paper to create bundles. They all seemed to 'get it' and keen to continue the conversation well beyond the alloted time - very encouraging. Some pressing practical concerns too - e-portfolio interface, team evaluation. Devising dream documentation workshops with Andrew, Les and Celia over lunch  (thank you Leigh!) -so much experience and enthusiasm around the table-  could do a whole 10-week module on drawing! Looking forward to the next session -

today was all about creative thinking at Kings with excellent science (medical) people and artists. working on developing the 3D synthetic teaching module. it really is such a fantastic pleasure to be in the room with thinking people surrounded by gloriously splendid specimens of the animal kingdom - the Museum Collection. The purposely 'poorly briefed' exercise threw up so many excellent talking points that the course just seemed to get better before my eyes, one point might be to deliver a more focused brief. The meeting after to begin to design the documentation input was wonderfully creative - just fulfilling. It was such a pleasure to be in the room with such creative individuals - It was an interesting session and like the best teaching I learnt a lot about how a project can be re-imagined through the creation of new tools - I think learning will take place on all sides.