Lighthouse Prep Academy students have hands-on anatomy learning experience

A local private Christian school teacher said his high school students' experiences Tuesday of seeing human cadavers at a nearby college's anatomy lab can help build an appreciation of human creation by the design of God, among other things - and there is a biblical parallel.

"I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you, and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin," God said to dry bones scattered on the floor of a valley, according to the Book of Ezekiel.

Similarly, students from Jefferson City's Lighthouse Preparatory Academy got a firsthand understanding of tendons, flesh and what's under the human skin Tuesday at Westminster College's anatomy lab in the Coulter Science Center in Fulton - learning from donated bodies that serve a solemn purpose of teaching the living about the mechanics of their own flesh and blood.

"At the forefront of this experience is an understanding that the donation that makes this possible was done as a selfless contribution and should be honored and respected as such," the lab's visitor policy describes the attitude owed to the donors who decided to give their own bodies to science upon their death.

As a sign of respect, the two donor bodies on tables Tuesday - an elderly man and woman, both more than 80 years old when they died - were mostly draped by dark sheets at all times. The face and genitals were always covered, and the only parts of the embalmed bodies exposed were the previously dissected portions two Westminster seniors showed to 12 students from Lighthouse.

"I always remember that being just a 'wow' moment, I can't believe this is real life," Lighthouse anatomy teacher Bryce Koelling said of the first time he saw a human cadaver in his first trimester of graduate school at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. He has a private chiropractic practice in Fulton.

Koelling teaches anatomy and physiology at Lighthouse three days a week to offer students college credit through Central Methodist University. He said his 13 students - one couldn't make it Tuesday - have dissected a sheep's brain and heart, a cow's eye, and cats, but nothing comes close to a human body and "being able to see (it) live and up close versus in a book or in a video."

Probably only two of his students - four seniors, including the one who wasn't on the field trip Tuesday, and the rest juniors - plan to go into a health care or medical field, but there are still benefits even for those who won't work professionally with living or dead human bodies in the future, he said.

"They all have an appreciation of how they themselves are made," he said, adding his students have an internal knowledge of the physiological effects of behaviors such as proper exercise and nutrition that most people don't.

"They're going to be much more able to talk to and interact with (their own) doctors," he said.

"I used to play sports. I still lift weights," so Westminster senior Nolan Wood said he finds muscles to be the most interesting part of his studies, he told the Lighthouse students.

The students reviewed anatomical features including the lungs, digestive organs, heart, ribs, brain and shoulder, chest, abdominal and leg muscles, and joints. The gloved and aproned students got to hold several of the organs - the heart, lungs and brain.

"As we talk about all year long, we talk about human life, human creation is God's greatest creation," Koelling said. "We approach the class from that standpoint."

This was the second year he's had students come to Westminster's anatomy lab. It's also the second year he's taught at Lighthouse.

He said it's rare for most four-year colleges to have a cadaver lab, and added of the two Westminster seniors who instructed his students Tuesday that "the level of poise and professionalism that those two young gentlemen had today, teaching us, I think speaks well for the program" and the two men's future careers.

The second senior with Wood was Hunter Domsch, and both are students of Dawn Holliday, an associate professor of biology and environmental science at Westminster and an adjunct assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at the University of Missouri.

"It's becoming a little more common for undergraduate students to be exposed to donors," Holliday said, adding it's still rare for undergraduate students to have a hand in human cadaver dissections, which sets Westminster apart.

"There's subtle differences that become really intriguing," she said of what she notices when studying the internal workings of different individuals' bodies. She cited similar benefits for students being able to see cadavers as Koelling did - inspiration to work in health care, a better self-understanding - and also being able to better understand medical issues family members may go through.

She said the two cadavers Tuesday came from Saint Louis University. Bodies previously have come from the University of Missouri and Washington University.

She said anyone interested in donating their body to science can contact the school of medicine they'd like to donate to, adding most donors have some sort of personal connection to the institution they choose.