Every year or so, I love to share my FAVORITE anatomy class with you! These lectures are from the famous neuroscientist Professor Marian Diamond who was known not only for bringing a brain to school in a box (!) but for making her students handwrite their notes! As a neuroscientist, she knew that copywork was an excellent way for them to learn anatomy. Sadly, she passed away in 2017 at age 90 (!) and was still lecturing on Anatomy for the University of California, Berkeley until just a few years before her death. Her lectures are on YouTube and the full series is available for free. Enjoy!
“Marian Cleeves Diamond, one of the founders of modern neuroscience, was the first to show that the brain can change with experience and improve with enrichment, and who discovered evidence of this in the brain of Albert Einstein.”
(So there’s that)
In the early 2000’s I was studying Anatomy & Physiology, and looking for some YouTube enrichment. I stumbled on her course Integrative Biology 131: General Human Anatomy. I was immediately hooked. For starters, she writes *in cursive* on a chalkboard. The students must copy and write their notes (gasp) since she doesn’t give out handouts or use PowerPoint slides. She knew, because she was a neuroscientist, that writing notes this way (as opposed to just passively listening or watching) was an excellent way for students to learn.
You might think that a modern student would push back to such old-school teaching, but you’d be wrong. To date, her videos have more views than ANY OTHER video on the University of California, Berkeley YouTube Channel.
“She was the most incredible teacher I ever had,” said Robert Sproul, a 2003 graduate and orthopedic surgeon at UCSF.
“I’ve been teaching biology courses at the college level for over 10 years now and I can honestly say: (1) she is absolutely the best anatomy professor I’ve ever seen and (2) she is 100% correct about what she says at 5:50 . Nothing can replace the effectiveness of writing and drawing simple pictures in learning the fundamentals of biology in general and anatomy in particular.”
“I love Dr. Diamond!!!! Her class was one of my favorites. She doesn’t know me, but I appreciated her so much. and I’m moving on to med school now. Thank you Dr. Diamond!!”
If your teen has a fire for the brain, anatomy, or science, I’m sure they’ll love these videos. I sure did! There are 39 Lectures in the full course. Here is the first one. (Use the comments on YouTube to extra extras like the chalkboard texts and outlines- students generously added these to the comments)
