Upon entering Jennifer Legere’s anatomy lab, located on the third story of the UCENT building in downtown Phoenix, you will realize you are not in a normal classroom.
To your right, there are shelves full of human body parts. To your left, a refrigerator the size of a human body.
The lab is home to two cadavers, a male and female, both of which will be dissected as a part of BIO 494 this semester.
Legere is the Coordinator for Arizona State University’s downtown anatomy lab. She says the cadavers benefit the students, offering something really special.
“To me it’s not just looking at a cadaver. This is somebody who chose to donate their body to educate all of our students,” Legere said.
Legere hasn’t always had a positive outlook on cadavers though. When she was a student at ASU, she almost fainted at the sight of her first body.
“It’s something that I can relate to students,” she said. “Some people just have a stronger stomach right off the bat, others just don’t.”
Half of the students who currently work with Legere elect to not view the bodies. Instead they may use the lab’s brand new life-sized, touch screen-enabled virtual dissector.
The new technology is made by a company from Silicon Valley called Anatomage.
“It’s been featured on shows like 'Grey’s Anatomy,'” she says. “That impresses (the students).”
Legere teaches the BIO 201 and 202 lab sections. She also helps with BIO 494, which is the cadaver dissection course.
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