Student Services Spotlight: the Bone Room
This article is part of a series highlighting our Student Services offices and what they can do for you. For information about all HFC student services, please visit the Student Services and Campus Resources sections of our website.
Since its inception in 2014, the Biology Lab – more commonly called the Bone Room – in the Learning Lab on HFC's campus, is extremely popular with students wanting to master human anatomy by studying anatomical models.
“The Bone Room filled a need for increased academic support for students in anatomy and physiology and other biology courses. The ability to physically hold a replica of a human heart or a skull is an invaluable tool to help students learn the intricacies of the human body,” said HFC Learning Lab Lead Faculty Chardin Claybourne. “From July 2018 through June 2019, the Learning Lab recorded nearly 9,000 distinct usages of anatomical models from the Bone Room. This provides evidence that the Bone Room is a necessary and favorite resource of HFC students.”
"Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy" is online substitute for the Bone Room
Due to the pandemic, the Learning Lab’s physical location is temporarily closed. HFC Director of the Library and Academic Support Services Kate Harger looked into viable online alternatives to the Bone Room during summer 2020.
The solution? Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy (requires login) is the online stand-in for the Bone Room, offering online, interactive 3-D images for students to study anatomy. Once the Bone Room reopens, Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy will remain available as an online complement. (You can view the public preview of Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy here.)
“This a great new interactive database for students to learn human anatomy online,” said Harger.
How HFC students can receive full access to the "online Bone Room"
Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy is available on the Eshleman Library website (search for Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy). A library barcode is needed for off-campus access to the database. If you don't have a barcode, you can contact the library, and a librarian will be able to grant you login access.
“The software is extremely robust,” said Harger. “Students can pull up images and zoom in, rotate, etc. It’s very similar to how they would study with physical models in the Bone Room. There are interactive lessons, links to further information sources, and self-assessment tools so students can test their knowledge.”
For questions or more information about the Bone Room, contact Claybourne at cclaybourne@hfcc.edu or Harger at kharger@hfcc.edu.