Anatomical body painting: an inexpensive, high-impact face-to-face practical for a generalist anatomy student cohort

Purpose: Anatomical body painting (ABP) has previously been used to great success as a valuable learning experience for anatomy specialists such as medical, dental and physiotherapy students. Here, we evaluate the introduction and student experience of an ABP practical to a student cohort of anatomy generalists in a first year Human Biology unit.

Methods: 153 Human Biology students undertook an ABP practical in which groups of students painted the skeletal (right side) and muscular (left side) anatomy of the upper limbs. Student feedback was collected, collated and qualitatively analysed for themes of responses.

Results: 82% of students provided feedback, of which 96% of respondents offered positive responses about the practical and 76% offered suggestions for improvement. Overall, the students found the practical fun or enjoyable (34% of positive responses), informative (20%) and enjoyed the visual (18%) or handson (15%) aspects of the practical. Improvements could be made by providing more direction in the practical (46% of suggestions for improvement) and/or having smaller groups (23%).

Conclusions: For under $300, ABP can be a tool for a high-impact and engaging anatomical learning experience, even for students that do not require highly detailed anatomical knowledge. In the future, ABP could be used to support blended learning such as the flipped classroom, while it may also offer an opportunity for inter-professional student learning.