The weekly rhythm of an 8-week TBL flipped intensive. Read this once carefully, then refer back whenever you feel disoriented in the term. This is the page that tells you what each day looks like and what is expected of you on it.
Once you understand these four anchors, the daily rhythm is just the sequence in which they happen. Everything else is detail.
01
Your weekly scaffold. You complete foundation anatomy research and differential research throughout the week. This is where most of your concept learning lives.
02
One TBL each week. iRAT (individual quiz), tRAT (team quiz), case clue reveal, and application discussion with your team.
03
Every class day. Structure identification, microscopy, dissection, and station-based practice. Lab is your structured, forward-moving study time.
04
A community-accountability question. One student from one randomly selected group answers, and the whole class earns the same score.
Class meets Monday through Thursday. Friday is required rest. This is what each week of the term looks like.
Open this week's research workbook. Watch any assigned lecture videos for Monday's content. Begin foundation anatomy research (Section A modules) and a first pass at differential research (Section B). Light review of Saturday's weak spots from the prior week.
Evening: nightly synthesis (Section D), prep tomorrow's lab.
Evening: more foundation research, synthesis, lab prep for Wednesday.
Evening: complete differential research and prep Thursday's TBL. Your workbook should be substantially complete tonight.
Sleep is consolidation. The cognitive science is unambiguous on this. No studying on Friday. Your brain is moving short-term memory into long-term storage and that process needs time and rest. Pushing through Friday gives you diminishing returns and worse exam performance.
Self-test routines: cover Section A answers and recall them, cover muscle origin/insertion/action columns, atlas drilling under time pressure, spiral review of earlier weeks. Track your weak spots. Whatever you cannot recall by Saturday afternoon goes on a focused list for Sunday review.
Each week you receive a research workbook. It is the central scaffold for the week's learning. The workbook has six sections, each with a specific role.
You do not memorize the workbook. You complete it as a research artifact. The act of researching, naming, locating, and committing to an answer is the learning.
Thursday morning, before lab, you complete TBL with your assigned team. Each TBL is worth 40 points and has two graded components:
After the tRAT, you and your team work through clinical application questions and the Thursday morning case reveal. Application questions are ungraded but you are expected to understand the rationale if called on.
Because each TBL totals 40 points, the iRAT alone is 75% of your TBL grade. A strong team will not save an unprepared individual. Show up ready.
No drops, but a built-in safety net. No TBL scores are dropped this term. Instead, the cumulative lecture exam acts as a one-shot safety net: if your cumulative exam percentage is higher than your single lowest TBL percentage, that lowest TBL is raised to match the cumulative exam before your TBL average is computed. The boost only ever helps you. Read the full rule on Grading & Assessments.
Lab runs every class day. You rotate through stations, work with models, slides, and prosected material, and drill structure identification with your group.
Lab is intentionally designed to provide hands-on time during class hours so that you are not entirely dependent on after-class study. Use the time well: work with focus, drill structures, ask questions, and test each other.
If lab time is not used productively, I will impose a more structured rotation format with required tasks. The flexibility you have during lab depends on the engagement and accountability you demonstrate.
At the end of nearly every lab session, I ask one person in one randomly selected group a single question covering the day's lab content. The entire class earns the same score based on that one student's answer.
This format intentionally creates peer accountability. If everyone uses lab time well, the selected student knows the answer and the class earns the points. If anyone has not engaged, that student could be the one called on, and the class loses points together. No make-ups. No quiz scores are dropped.
No old-school lecture exams along the way. Your weekly TBL is the assessment that carries the term; the cumulative lecture exam at the end pulls it all together and can lift your lowest TBL.
7
One each Monday of weeks 2 through 8. Each covers the prior week's content with roughly 20% spiral review. Weighted at 45% of your course grade.
1
One comprehensive exam during week 8 covering every module. Weighted at 5%, and doubles as the TBL safety net.
Lab practical format: 50 minutes, 25 stations, 2 questions per station for 50 questions total. 90 seconds per station; you rotate on a timer. You identify anatomy from microscope slides, pictures, charts, models, and prosected material. Spelling counts. Bring a pen; pencils are not permitted. Doors lock when the exam begins. No make-ups. Every lab exam counts; none is dropped.
Cumulative lecture exam: One exam during week 8 with equal representation of material from every module. The exact date and time are posted on the Canvas course homepage. If your cumulative exam percentage is higher than your single lowest TBL percentage, that lowest TBL is raised to match the cumulative exam before your TBL average is computed.
Full assessment detail lives on the Grading & Assessments page, and you can estimate your standing at any point with the Grade Calculator.
Eight weeks. Seven TBL cases. Seven lab practical exams. One cumulative lecture exam. The same rhythm every week, with content scaling from cells and tissues in week 1 to integrated body systems by week 8.
Orientation and anatomical terminology, the cell, the four tissue types and histology, and the integumentary system.
Bone classification and ossification, skull, vertebral column, and thoracic cage.
Girdles and limbs, joint classification, synovial joints and movements, and skeletal muscle microanatomy.
Heart anatomy and conduction, vessel histology, thoracic and upper extremity muscles, and regional blood vessels and nerves.
Airways and lungs, pulmonary circulation, lymphatic organs, and blood composition.
GI tract and accessory organs, abdominal and pelvic wall, lower extremity muscles, and regional blood vessels and nerves.
Kidney and nephron, renal vasculature, male and female reproductive systems, and endocrine glands.
Brain and spinal cord, meninges and ventricles, cranial nerves and the ANS, head and neck muscles. Cumulative Lecture Exam this week.
The rhythm is the cure for the disorientation of an intensive course. When you do not know what to do next, this page tells you.
Open the full syllabus