Model Mania: Using 3D Models for A&P

Presented by Elizabeth CarsonKaren Shepherd

CAST 2015

Importance of 3D spatial understanding

Students can have great difficulty looking at tissue with a light microscope and

understanding its 3D structure

Tissue Types in Anatomy

• Epithelial Tissue

• Connective Tissue

• Muscle Tissue

• Nervous Tissue

Epithelial ModelsEpithelial tissue is classified by its cell shape

and number of cell layers

Cell shape: Squamous, Cuboidal, Columnar

Tissue arrangement: Simple, Stratified, Pseudostratified

Epithelial ModelsHow can we make the different cell shapes out of paper bag? What needs to be added to the bags to make them more representative?

• Squamous

• Cuboidal

• Columnar

Name this Tissue

Name this Tissue

Epithelial Tissue Arrangement

Combine “cells” to make simple squamous, cuboidal and

columnar

Modeling Stratified Epithelium

• Break up into groups. Each group construct a model of stratified tissue.

• Labeling your model. Based on this microscope slide, what structures can you see under the microscope? Color and label those.

Epithelial Models

Epithelial ModelsChallenge Model: How would you make

pseudostratified epithelium?

Connective Tissue Models

• Connective tissue is classified by the cells, fibers, and matrices.

• Let’s look at several slides to determine how best to model these types of tissue.

Connective Tissue Proper

• Cells: Fibroblasts

• Matrix: Mostly hylaronic acid, but there are some exceptions

• Fibers: depends on the type, can be reticular, collagenous, and elastic

One example: Areolar connective tissue

• Connective Tissue Proper

• Cells: Fibroblasts

• Fiber: Collagenous, Reticular, and Elastic

• Matrix: Hylaronic acid

Now make your ownGet with a partner and construct a model of

your dense connective tissue. Cells: ?

Fibers: ?

Matrix: ?

Cartilage

• Cells: Chrondrocytes

• Matrix: Chrondroitin sulfate

• Fibers: Depends on the types, can be elastic, collagenous, or reticular

One example: Elastic cartilage

Blood

Identify the Parts

Adipose

Turning Muscle Tissue into a Muscle Organ

• We construct this model before we start dissecting.

• I have students construct this while lecture as well.

This activity is done when we are studying the muscular system. My students and I construct a muscle (organ) from skeletal muscle and dense connective tissue proper. In this model students use clear plastic wrap to represent the dense connective tissue and red fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners) to represent the skeletal muscle tissue. Individual muscle fibers (one red fuzzy stick) is wrapped with a sheet of clear plastic wrap. Student teams placed their wrapped individual muscle fibers together and wrap the entire bundle with clear plastic wrap to create a fascicle. All student groups combine their fascicles and wrap them a large sheet of clear plastic wrap to create a muscle. Before the clear plastic wrap is closed shut, several long pieces of thick white yarn are added to represent the nerve tissue in that muscle (organ). Also, several long pieces of thin red yarn is added to represent the blood vessels (both veins and arteries).

Skeletal Muscle Fibers: multinucleated contractile cells varying from less than 10–100 mcm in diameter and

from less than 1 mm to several centimeters in length; the fiber consists of sarcoplasm and cross-striated myofibrils, which in turn consist of

myofilaments; human skeletal muscles are a mixture of red, white, and intermediate type fibers.

Endomysium: delicate connective tissue sheath that encloses each muscle

fiber

Perimysium: coarser fibrous membrane that sheaths or wraps several sheathed muscle fibers

Fascicle: several sheathed muscle fibers wrapped by a

perimysium

Epimysium: many fascicles bound together by a tough “overcoat” of

connective tissue

Tendon: cords of dense fibrous tissue attaching a muscle to a bone

Nerve Tissue

• This is done as an independent project.

• Students design a model of a nerve tissue as an independent project outside of school.

• What are some things that you are doing in class?

Adapted from 3-D Tissue Models Anyone Can Build by Ruth Lehmann Hutson Blue Valley High School,

Randolph, KSrhutson@usd384.org

Questions?• All microscope images are found at:

http://www.kumc.edu/instruction/medicine/anatomy/histoweb/index.htm. JayDoc Histoweb. 2014. The University of Kansas. Date accessed April 4, 2014.

• A free collection of supplemental materials is available by searching 3-D Tissue Models that anyone can build on the NSTA Learning Center.

Works Cited