Anatomy & Physiology: An Integrative Approach 3rd Edition
Book Preface
Human anatomy and physiology is a fascinating subject. However, students can be overwhelmed by the complexity, the interrelatedness of concepts from different chapters, and the massive amount of material in the course. Our goal was to create a textbook to guide students on a clearly written and expertly illustrated beginner’s path through the human body.
An Integrative Approach
One of the most daunting challenges that students face in mastering concepts in an anatomy and physiology course is
integrating related content from numerous chapters. Understanding a topic like blood pressure, for example, requires knowledge from the chapters on the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, and how these structures are regulated by the nervous and endocrine systems.
The usefulness of a human anatomy and physiology text is dependent in part on how successfully it helps students integrate these related concepts. Without this, students are only acquiring what seems like unrelated facts without seeing how they fit into the whole.
To adequately explain such complex concepts to beginning students in our own classrooms, we as teachers present multiple topics over the course of many class periods, all the while balancing these detailed explanations with refreshers of content previously covered and intermittent glimpses of the big picture. Doing so ensures that students learn not only the individual pieces, but also how the pieces ultimately fit together. This book represents our best effort to replicate this teaching process. In fact, it is the effective integration of concepts throughout the text that makes this book truly unique from other undergraduate anatomy and physiology texts.
Our goal of emphasizing the interrelatedness of body systems
and the connections between form and function necessitates a wellthought-out pedagogical platform to deliver the content.
First and foremost, we have written a very user-friendly text with concise, accurate descriptions that are thorough, but don’t overwhelm readers with nonessential details. The text narrative is deeply integrated with corresponding illustrations drawn specifically to match the textual explanations. In addition, we have included a set of “Integrate” features that support our theme and work together to give the student a well-rounded introduction to anatomy and physiology. Integrate: Concept Overview figures are one- or two-page visual summaries that aggregate related concepts in a big picture view. These comprehensive figures link multiple sections of a chapter together in a cohesive snapshot ideal for study and review. Integrate: Concept Connections boxes provide glimpses of how concepts at hand will play out in upcoming chapters, and also pull vital information from earlier chapters back into the discussion at crucial points when relevant to a new topic. Integrate: Clinical View discussions apply concepts from the surrounding narrative to practical or clinical contexts, providing examples of what can go wrong in the human body to help crystallize understanding of the “norm.” Integrate: Learning Strategy boxes infuse each chapter with practical study tips to understand and remember information. Learning strategies include mnemonics, analogies, and kinesthetic activities that students can perform to relate the anatomy and physiology to their own bodies. Finally, the digital assets that accompany our book are tied to each section’s learning objectives and previewed in the Integrate: Online Study Tools boxes at the end of each chapter.
Chapter Organization
In order to successfully execute an integrative approach, foundational topics must be presented at the point when it matters most for understanding. This provides students with a baseline of knowledge about a given concept before it comes time to apply that information in a more complex situation. Topics are thus subdivided and covered in this sequence:
∙ Chapter 2: Atoms, Ions, and Molecules Most students taking an A&P course have limited or no chemistry background, which requires a textbook to provide a detailed, organized treatment of atomic and molecular structure, bonding, water, and biological macromolecules as a basis to understanding physiological processes.
∙ Chapter 3: Energy, Chemical Reactions, and Cellular Respiration ATP is essential to all life processes. A solid understanding of ATP furthers student comprehension of movement of materials across a membrane, muscle contractions, production of needed replacement molecules and structures in cells, action potentials in nerves, pumping of the heart, and removal of waste materials in the kidneys. This textbook elevates the importance of the key concept of ATP by teaching it early. We then utilize this knowledge in later chapters as needed, expanding on what has already been introduced rather than re-teaching it entirely.
∙ Chapter 13: Nervous System: Brain and Cranial Nerves and Chapter 14: Nervous System: Spinal Cord and Spinal Nerves Instead of subdividing the nervous system discussion into separate central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) chapters, nervous system structures are grouped by region. Thus, students can integrate the cranial nerves with their respective nuclei in the brain, and they can integrate the spinal cord regions with the specific spinal nerves that originate from these regions.
∙ Chapter 17: Endocrine System We have organized both the endocrine system chapter and the specific coverage of the many hormones released from endocrine glands to most effectively and efficiently guide students in understanding how this system of control functions in maintaining homeostasis. Within the chapter on the endocrine system, we provide an introduction and general discussion of the endocrine system’s central concepts and describe selected representative hormones that maintain body homeostasis.
Details of the actions of most other hormones—which require an understanding of specific anatomic structures covered in other chapters—are described in those chapters; for example, sex hormones are discussed in Chapter 28: Reproductive System. Learning the various hormones is facilitated by the inclusion of a “template” figure for each major hormone; each visual template includes the same components (stimulus, receptor, control center, and effectors) organized in a similar layout. In addition, information on each major hormone described in this text can be quickly accessed in the summary tables following chapter 17.
∙ Chapter 21: Lymphatic System and Chapter 22: Immune System and the Body’s Defense A single chapter that discusses both the lymphatic system and immune system is overwhelming for most students. Thus, we separated the discussion into two separate chapters. The lymphatic system chapter focuses on the anatomic structures that compose the system, and provides a brief functional overview of each structure. This allows us to provide a thorough discussion and overview of the immune system in a separate chapter, where we frequently reference and integrate material from the earlier chapter.
∙ Chapter 29: Development, Pregnancy, and Heredity Coverage of heredity is included in the chapter on pregnancy and human development as a natural extension of Chapter 28: Reproductive System. This introduction will serve well as a precursor for students who follow their A&P course with a genetics course
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