A human skeleton model at UAA's anatomy lab. Photo by Murat Demir.
The Northern Light toured UAA's anatomy lab under the guidance of Dr. Sarah Beam, an assistant professor of medical education for WWAMI — a collaborative medical education program involving six universities, including UAA.
Beam met The Northern Light outside the secured doors of the anatomy lab, located in the UAA Health Sciences Building.
Inside the doors, visitors are faced with two rows of cold, steel gurneys. White, human-shaped bags lie on each one.
Beam sat in her office and explained that she began teaching at UAA’s anatomy lab in July 2024.
She said she became interested in the field when she took an anatomy course during her undergraduate degree and enjoyed it enough to become a teaching assistant.
Beam’s interest led her to complete a doctoral degree in anatomy at Ohio State University. Her dissertation focused on best teaching practices, which involved the development of a training program for undergraduate teaching assistants.
“I really like to ignite a spark in students,” said Beam. “The anatomy lab can be kind of scary sometimes — I like to make it a very relaxed and comfortable environment.”
Following the brief conversation, the tour of the lab began.
The lab provides a venue for students in undergraduate, Doctor of Occupational Therapy and Doctor of Medicine programs to learn from real human bodies known as donors.
Beam said the lab’s donors are individuals who donated their bodies to science and education through the University of Washington's Willed Body Program.
She said the donors go through an embalming process to preserve the bodies, similar to a funeral home, before being flown up to the lab.
“I'm not a blood-and-guts kind of person — that's why I didn't want to do the clinical side of things,” said Beam. “And so now, apparently, I can't do blood — but I can do guts.”
Students interact with the donors in a number of ways depending on their level of education.
“The occupational therapy students — they're dissecting,” said Beam. “I split them up into three groups, and they're doing the dissection for whatever area of the body that we're on.”
She said the undergraduate students learn on the donors that the medical students or the occupational therapy students have already dissected.
Students are also provided guest lectures from members of the local medical community.
“I invite physicians from the community, which is really great because my training is not clinical-related at all, just on the anatomy,” said Beam.
Beam demonstrated her instructional skills during the tour, teaching The Northern Light about the anatomy of several donors.
“You can see the dura mater that covers the brain … you can see the vasculature on it and the nerves,” Beam said while identifying parts of a donor's brain. “They had that cerebral angiopathy, and I believe they had a stroke as well.”
Her expertise in anatomy and enthusiasm for teaching were unmistakable.
The lab currently has 10 donors for students to learn from. According to Beam, the university typically hosts the donors for one year, after which they are sent to be cremated and returned to their families.
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