“You never forget that the bodies are someone”, Jacqlyn Hyler says, “but you don’t feel that you’re doing something personal to them.”
Hyler, a graduate teaching fellow with the Department of Human Physiology at the University of Oregon, teaches Human Cadaver Dissection, where undergraduate students can operate on and dissect real donated human bodies.
“It’s one of my favorite places to be,” said Hyler. “My husband even proposed to me in the lab.”
It’s a very popular course in the second most popular major at UO: 9% of degrees awarded in 2013 were in human physiology last year.  The program has grown from 300 to 1100 students in the last ten years.
Last year, over 160 students applied for this specific course, with only 60 being admitted.
The “donors” are dissected by students in order for them to learn about the human structure. The Human Anatomy Lab allows for students to learn about human structures by actually looking at them.
“It’s intimidating at first, but it’s an incredible experience,” said Sara Shontz, a senior Human Physiology major.
The lab receives its donors from a body donation program at the Western Health Science University. Each spring, a group of graduate students travels to the school to pick up 8 donors and drop off the remains of the donors from the previous year.
“For me, the weirdness left after I had opportunity to have a physical interaction with the donors,” said Hyler.
Shontz explained how her class was divided into four groups of five people. Throughout the course, the groups dissected the donor bodies and examined different body systems.
While any student can apply for the class as long as they meet the course prerequisites, priority registration is given to human physiology majors.
The college program is one of a few that allows for students to get hands on experience with human biological systems. Even more unusual, the program allows for undergraduates to enroll. This type of training is generally reserved for higher end programs or medical schools.
Director of the Human Anatomy Laboratory and Undergraduate Advising Jon Runyeon described how programs of this kind that allow for undergraduate students to participate are “rare.”
“It’s an unparalleled opportunity to learn real human anatomy,” said Runyeon.
Hyler’s advice to those interested in the taking a course at the Human Physiology Lab is to get hands-on.
“For me, interacting with the bodies sooner than later allowed me to continue to make more progress and allowed for any misconceptions that I had to be erased,” she said.
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