Tools of the Trade
Blow flies, and piglets, and cadavers – oh MY!
Dr. Amanda Roe has studied blow flies for seven years. “If it was not for blow flies and their maggots (baby flies),” says the College of Saint Mary (CSM) assistant professor of biology “we would be up to our necks in dead, stinking carcasses.” That’s one reason she encourages her students to take an interest in them. It’s also why she uses blow flies to impart a basic understanding of general biology.
“Flies impact almost every facet of human life – disease, pollination, decomposition and food,” she says. “My lab focuses on blow flies and animal (including human) decomposition and how it impacts the ecosystem.” Roe’s students learn why and how blow flies are used in forensic science to help estimate time of death in crime scene investigations.
“Students learn a great deal in the classroom,” says Dr. Jeff Keyte, division chair of arts & sciences at CSM. “However, hands-on experiences are closest to what students will actually do. By having students integrate what they know with real-time situations, the brain is able to learn in the way it learns best – by doing, problem solving, succeeding and even failing.”
To engage students in the learning process, Roe uses lab research to show differences in maggot growth rates. One of Roe’s former students, Kara Fletcher ’15 was interested in learning if maggots have a preference for different substrates, such as sand, soil or wood chips. The biology major, who graduated in May was also interested in how cycles of light and dark impact the speed of maggot development. Roe worked with Fletcher to develop her experiment.
Each day Fletcher measured the number of maggots in the different substrates, timing developmental differences in containers exposed to either full or partial light. “She found that sand extended development,” says Roe. “There wasn’t much difference between the light treatments.” Fletcher received the Albertus Magnus Award funded by alumna Barbi Hayes ’89, for her research titled Lucilia sericata’s Developmental Response When Introduced to Different Substrates.
Roe also takes her students on field trips to examine road kill, and has them study decomposing pigs to capture blow flies and monitor the fly populations. “The absolute best thing in the world for me to hear,” she says, “is ‘I thought maggots were disgusting, but now I think they’re cool!’”
It’s an epiphany, says Roe. “It’s that moment when a student gains appreciation for an organism that they didn’t know anything about, or had a lifetime of preconceived negative feelings toward.
“It makes me smile every time.”
Roe’s students can easily capture flies off decomposing pigs – because the pigs are on campus grounds. Dr. Phyllis Higley, associate professor of biology, says the experiment fascinates her students.
The dead piglets, excellent models for human remains, are set out for in-depth study of decomposition, a critical aspect of nutrient cycling in the ecosystem. “Decomposition of skeletal muscle is used forensically to estimate time of death,” she says.
Carrion flies come immediately to dead animals to lay their eggs, which hatch into maggots, pupate and develop into the adult form.
“The developmental stages are regulated by environmental conditions,” says Higley, “so the speed of fly development can be used to figure back to when the animal died.
“Students observe over time the process of decomposition through fly development,” she says. “They hone their scientific observational skills and are exposed to a graphic understanding of decomposition.”
Students also set up field studies with the pig carcasses, varying treatments that either allow flies to lay eggs or to prevent flies from laying eggs. In doing so, “students learn how to design and set up a controlled experiment,” she explains.
Going where the green things (and frogs) grow
The opportunity for experiential learning goes beyond the cadavers on campus. Higley also takes her students off-campus for field trips.
“Biology is the study of life,” she says. “There’s no better place to learn about it than outside.
“We can talk about plants, and observe them in the University’s greenhouse all year long, but it’s best to experience where and how they grow.” That often means meandering Little Papio Creek or visiting Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, which boasts a rare plant lab and amphibian conservation area.
She coordinates with the zoo so her zoology students can learn more about the alarming decline of amphibians around the world. “They learn more about why this is happening, including loss of habitat, pollution, climate change and the increased prevalence of chytrid disease,” says Higley. They also join the zoo and many global conservation programs in surveying frogs for the disease.
Higley’s students perform their surveys on the banks of the creek, which is located behind the University. Pairs or small groups of student-researchers survey a broad area, engaging in collaborative learning; they learn not only from the professor, but each other, as well.
The creek is useful for students in a many different disciplines. Biology students use the area to learn field techniques, such as capture-mark-recapture. Students in the environmental sciences learn how to test for water quality levels, and ecology students learn how to develop eco tours.
Off-campus field work complements on-campus lab experiments. After observing frogs in their natural habitat, students then collect specimens for dissection. They quickly learn that catching them is not as easy as it sounds, but the exercise has its own rewards.
“My students come back from these collecting trips as if from a quest,” she says. “They tell tales of the physical obstacles they overcame and the trickiness of the frogs.
“They also take great pride in the contribution they are making to science, and they realize that science is a community endeavor.”
In addition to lab work, students also take advantage of CSM’s teaching greenhouse on the east side of campus. Members of the Green Team (a student group focusing on environmental issues and community involvement) grow plants and sell them to raise money for their activities. Stock plants in the greenhouse provide propagation material to grow more plants, which are used in botany and other classes. The plants are also used by students conducting research experiments funded by a NASA Nebraska Space Grant.
The NASA student research evaluates the risks of pythium root rot in hydroponically-grown plants. This research could have application on the International Space Center as more food is produced in space.
The student researchers also gain valuable research and presentation skills by presenting their findings at the Nebraska Academy of Science meetings.
Irreplaceable cadaver research and cutting-edge technology
When it comes to education in the health professions, says Keyte, “there is quite literally no replacement” for using human cadavers. Few colleges or universities in Nebraska or surrounding states have even one cadaver. CSM presently has two and, by August 2016, the University will have eight.
“There is no way to learn the detailed and complex structure of the human body without working with cadavers,” says Keyte.
“It allows students to not only visualize but dissect, manipulate and affect the complex three-dimensional structures and elegant evolution of the human being. This prepares students to be better clinicians by creating a vast knowledge of what the inside looks like so they can care for patients from the outside.”
Students in Keyte’s gross anatomy class (cadaver lab) “often tell me that it is the hardest, but best class they have ever taken.
“I appreciate that,” he adds. “Students who rise to the challenge and are engaged and excited by it come away with effective, valuable knowledge for their careers.”
The latest in cutting-edge technology complements the cadaver research. CSM’s new Anatomage Table is a technologically advanced anatomy visualization system used in the world’s leading medical schools and institutions.
The table resembles an operating table or hospital bed and provides opportunities for virtual dissection. The 3-D views come from human dissections, as well as MRI and CT scans and create real-patient contents. They perfectly illustrate the anatomical realism of a living human.
“One of the most important things students learn at the table is cross-sectional anatomy,” says Keyte, “which is very difficult to get with cadavers – but which the new table easily provides.
“Students will need to know how to read these images and make clinical decisions based on them,” says Keyte. “The table is an exquisite tool for this kind of learning.”
CSM students “have ample access to a depth of incredible resources,” adds Keyte. “It’s one of the things that makes our pre-physician assistant (Pre-PA) program unique.”
In addition to the cadaver lab and 3-D dissection table, CSM students also have access to the Health Professions Skills and Simulation Center. “It provides amazing opportunities for students to think on their feet,” he adds. “Students can then apply what they have learned in real-world-like circumstances.”
In the labs students run “codes,” resuscitation and advanced life-saving and life support drills, with lifelike simulators (mannequins) of adults, children, infants and a pregnant woman. “Students experience in real time how their actions affect patients,” says Keyte, “providing valuable lessons about what to do and what not to do that are not easily forgotten.”
“It’s similar to sports,” says Shaun Grammer, M.S., PA-C., physician assistant studies program director. “Practice the way you want to perform. The simulations allow students to practice in situations as close to real life as possible.
“When students start rotations in a clinical setting, they feel more prepared, and more importantly, less nervous,” says Grammer.
All college programs include patient-simulated encounters, he says, but CSM combines its teaching tools with simulations that take place twice a week for seven or more months. “This level of preparation is a unique aspect of our program,” he adds.
Students also use simulators to learn about heart and breath sounds, and laparoscopy, a surgical procedure in which a small incision is made and a small camera (laparoscope) is inserted for examining inside the body.
The depth of teaching tools extends to the nursing and occupational therapy programs.
Realistic simulations + skills labs = real world expertise and confidence
“Therapy labs engage students in their learning experience,” states Dr. Alicia Oldham, assistant professor of occupational therapy and lab coordinator.
“Our pediatric OT lab simulates actual clinics,” says Oldham, “so students can readily connect what they are learning to real life.
“We bring in children from the community to the lab, and have our students go out into the community to develop their observation skills and entry-level clinical reasoning skills,” says Oldham, “that are necessary for decision-making during the evaluation and intervention processes in the field.”
The OT department features a home health lab that simulates an apartment with a bedroom and kitchen, as well as living, bath and laundry rooms. “Students use this space regularly to practice their skills, solve case study problems and develop their clinical reasoning skills,” adds Oldham.
The main OT lab includes a hanging mat table that allow students to practice positioning and transferring patients; mobility devices that are used in the field; and a large variety of adaptive equipment and splinting materials.
“Clinicians report that our students are well prepared, creative and demonstrate strong clinical reasoning skills,” adds Dr. Yolanda Griffiths, occupational therapy program director.
“We are most proud of the personal growth we witness, from students who barely knew what occupational therapy was when they first started – to graduates walking across the stage at commencement,” says Griffiths. “These are women who demonstrate knowledge, skills and the demeanor of professionals.”
CSM is known for producing some of the region’s best nurses. Dr. Christi Glesmann ’04, ’06, M’08, D’14, director of undergraduate nursing, says she knows why.
“Our Health Professions Skills and Simulation Center offers many great opportunities for learning,” she says. The skills labs predominantly used for nursing have 18 medium-fidelity simulators that allow students to practice vital signs, head-to-toe assessments, medication administration, insertion of nasogastric tubes and urinary catheters.
“All of the simulators are in hospital beds with their own supply charts and computers,” says Glesmann. All the learning materials students need are at their fingertips.
CSM also has four rooms that provide higher-level simulations with high-fidelity simulators; two medical-surgical/ICU rooms; one pediatric room; and a labor and delivery suite where the simulator even gives birth. All rooms are equipped with recording software to allow the students and faculty to review the simulation.
Glesmann says it’s rewarding to watch the growth of each student from enrollment to graduation. The faculty see a student’s growth “personally, academically and professionally,” she says, adding that she was humbled when a student told her how grateful she was for the unique learning experience at CSM.
“She said the opportunity taught her what it meant to be happy and successful in her career,” added Glesmann.
Higley recalls similar comments by a recent biology graduate. The student told her “the experience that sticks out most for me at College of Saint Mary is the learning environment.
“I got to know myself better and I increased my confidence as a woman and a leader on social and academic levels. I feel prepared to be a well-rounded professional.”
