Week 1 A&P Lab & Inquiry: Map the Body

Human Anatomy and Physiology I Free sample edition

Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you learned that every direction on the body is read from one standard pose, the anatomical position, and that the body's spaces are organized into cavities divided by the diaphragm. In this lab you use that language the way a clinician does. You set a free virtual anatomy atlas to the anatomical position, find six structures, and record where each sits, which cavity holds it, and how it lies compared with a neighbor. Then you check a chatbot's account of the same structures and catch where it mislabels a structure, gives a part the wrong job, scrambles an order, miscomputes a value, confuses a direction word, or invents a number.

Time budget: Plan for about 120 minutes.

Part 2 — The Task

Guiding question: Can you describe the location of six structures so precisely, using the anatomical position, directional pairs, planes, and cavities, that another person would find the same spot?

Before you begin — hypothesis: Before you identify anything, write your hypothesis in the if… then… because… form: if you describe each structure from the anatomical position, naming its cavity and both structures in every directional statement, then another person will or will not find the same spot, because of a reason you can state.

Workshop data: Your own identifications of six structures on a free virtual atlas, or the printed fallback descriptions

Source: Six structure identifications you make yourself on a free virtual anatomy atlas with the procedure in Part 3; if you cannot open an atlas, use the six printed descriptions in the fallback, which were written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas view.

Rows: 6 structures, one row each in the identification table; the planning table has 3 rows that set up the hypothesis rather than data
Columns: structure, body cavity, directional relationship to a neighbor, and best plane

Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

Tools and materials

A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet)

Ways of working

structure-identification-on-a-virtual-atlas
histology-on-a-virtual-microscope
at-home-physiology-measurement-and-data-table

Procedure

Open a free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer that needs no login, in any web browser, and choose a front view of the whole body. If your instructor names a particular atlas, use that one. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: A front view of the whole body fills the screen.
Set the view to the anatomical position: upright, facing you, feet parallel, upper limbs at the sides, palms facing forward. If the model's palms face its thighs, rotate the forearms or picture the palms turned forward, and write down which you did. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The thumbs point away from the body's midline.
Before you identify anything, write your hypothesis and the way you set the view in the first table in Part 4. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The first table has its three cells filled.
Open the nervous system view. Find the brain and the spinal cord. For each, record the body cavity that holds it and one directional relationship to a neighbor, naming both structures. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Two rows of the identification table are filled.
Open the cardiovascular or respiratory view. Find the heart, one lung, and the diaphragm. Record each structure's cavity and its position compared with a neighbor, and note which structures sit above the diaphragm. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Three more rows of the identification table are filled.
Return to the whole-body front view with the palms forward. Find the thumb and the index finger on one hand, and record the thumb's directional relationship to the index finger. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: All six rows have a cavity entry and a directional relationship.
For each structure, choose the plane that would best show it beside the neighbor you named, and write the two parts that cut makes. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The last column of the identification table is filled.
Answer the analysis questions in Part 5, then complete the critique in Part 6. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Every analysis question has a written answer.

Fallback route

When to use it: Use this route if you cannot open a free virtual anatomy atlas, if the atlas will not load on your device, or if a view you need is missing.

Use the six printed descriptions below, written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas view, to fill every cell of the identification table, then complete every analysis question and the critique from them and submit the same items for equal credit.

This route earns the same credit as the primary route.

Six printed descriptions of where each structure appears in a front view of the body, written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas.

Fallback model data
Structure	Where it appears in a front view
Brain	Inside the skull, at the top of the body, enclosed by bone
Spinal cord	A cord running down the back of the trunk, inside the bony column of the back
Heart	In the chest, in the middle region between the two lungs, above the sheet that separates the chest from the belly
One lung	In the chest, one on each side of the heart, above the same sheet
Diaphragm	The sheet stretched across the trunk, below the heart and lungs and above the belly
Thumb	On the hand; with the palms facing forward, on the edge of the hand farther from the trunk's midline than the index finger

Part 4 — The Scaffold

State your question and hypothesis before you look, so the identifications test an idea instead of confirming a guess.

Student scaffold table 1
Part of the plan	Your answer
The guiding question in your own words
Hypothesis (if… then… because…)
How you set the atlas view to the anatomical position

Record each structure as you find it, always naming both structures in a directional statement and both parts a plane makes.

Student scaffold table 2
Structure	Body cavity (or limb, no body cavity)	Directional relationship to a neighbor (name both structures)	Best plane to show it with that neighbor (name the two parts)
Brain
Spinal cord
Heart
One lung
Diaphragm
Thumb

Part 5 — Analysis Questions

Which of your six structures share a body cavity, and which cavity is split into two parts by the diaphragm? Name the structures on each side of that divider.
With the arms hanging naturally, many people say the thumb is on the inside of the hand. Explain why this course still calls the thumb lateral to the index finger, using the anatomical position.
A trail guide radios that an injured hiker has a cut on the hiker's right thigh, superior to the knee. Explain how the anatomical position and the rule that right means the body's own right let a responder who never saw the cut find it.
Name one way an on-screen atlas, or the printed descriptions, differs from a real body, and explain how that difference could lead someone to a wrong directional statement.
Choose one reflection and answer it in three to five sentences: (a) which of your six descriptions would be easiest for a stranger to misread, and how would you rewrite it? (b) which directional pair did you rely on most, and why was it the right pair for those structures?

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment

Choose one equal-credit critique route. Route A: ask an approved AI tool to critique your completed work, then check its response against your own evidence. Route B is the no-AI equivalent printed below.

Approved tools: Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft Copilot.

Prompt to paste:

I've pasted my completed Week 1 identification table above. For each of the six structures, tell me which body cavity holds it, describe its position compared with the neighbor I named using the five directional pairs read from the anatomical position, and say which plane would best show it with that neighbor. Then list the three parts of a body-temperature feedback loop in the order they act, and say how far a reading of 36.2 °C sits from a set point of 37.0 °C. If you use any measurement or study, give its source.

Test the response for these likely failures:

Chatbots sometimes place the heart in the abdominopelvic cavity or put the brain in the vertebral cavity.
Chatbots often give the sensing job to the control center, saying it detects the temperature change.
Chatbots sometimes list the loop as control center, then receptor, then effector, or start with the effector.
Chatbots sometimes subtract in the wrong direction or misplace the decimal, reporting a gap such as 1.2 °C.
Chatbots often call the thumb medial, use proximal or distal for the head or trunk, or say the sagittal plane separates front from back.
Asked for measurements, chatbots often supply an organ's size or weight, or a study, that this lab never gave.

In three to five sentences, quote at least two statements from the chatbot that you corrected, give the correction with evidence from your table or Chapter 1, and name one thing the chatbot got right.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

No AI account is required for this lab. Instead of the chatbot, critique this flawed analysis, printed here in full: "In my atlas table, the heart sits in the abdominopelvic cavity, inferior to the diaphragm, and the brain sits in the vertebral cavity. In the anatomical position the thumb is medial to the index finger, and the chest is proximal to the hips. A sagittal plane separates the front of the body from the back. In a temperature loop the control center senses the change, and the loop runs effector, then control center, then receptor. A reading of 36.2 °C is 1.8 °C below a set point of 37.0 °C. An atlas study showed that the adult heart weighs 310 grams." Mark it up: quote each flawed sentence, name what is wrong (a mislabeled structure, a wrong structure-to-function pairing, steps out of order, a miscomputed value, a confused directional term, or an invented figure), cite the evidence from your table or Chapter 1, and write a corrected sentence beneath it. This route assesses the same objective (Objective 1 — use the language of the body correctly — the anatomical position, the directional-term pairs, the three body planes, and the body cavities and abdominal regions — distinguish anatomy from physiology, climb the levels of structural organization, list the functions and requirements of human life, and trace a homeostatic feedback loop through its receptor, control center, and effector, telling negative feedback from positive feedback) as the chatbot critique, takes comparable effort (about 30 minutes and 200–300 words), is scored by the same scoring criteria for the same credit, and its own submission artifact is the marked-up flawed analysis, posted in place of the chatbot share link and report.

Part 7 — What to Submit

Both completed scaffold tables, filled from your own atlas work or the printed fallback descriptions
Written answers to all five analysis questions, including your chosen reflection option
The chatbot critique report with its share link, or the equivalent route's marked-up flawed analysis

Deliverable:

A short A&P Lab & Inquiry report on mapping the body: two completed tables (the plan with your hypothesis, and the six-structure identification table with cavities, directional relationships, and planes), written answers to five analysis questions, and a critique of a chatbot's account of your structures, or, on the equivalent route, a marked-up correction of the printed flawed analysis. Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text. Choose a written, recorded, or visual form for your answers; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria.

Rubric

The rubric below shows how each submitted part is evaluated; bands are full, partial, or none.

Workshop evaluation criteria
Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Hypothesis and the anatomical position set before identifying	An if… then… because… hypothesis about describing locations appears before the identifications, and the student states how the view was set to the anatomical position with the palms forward.	A hypothesis appears but lacks a because clause or is written after the identifications, or the anatomical-position setup is missing or unclear.	No hypothesis and no statement of how the view was set.
Identification table with correct cavities and directional terms	All six rows name the correct body cavity, or limb for the thumb, and give a correct directional relationship that names both structures.	Three to five rows are correct, or a directional statement names only one structure, or proximal and distal are used for the trunk.	Fewer than three rows are correct, or the table is missing.
Best plane named by the two parts it makes	Every row names a plane that would show the structure beside its neighbor and states the two parts that cut makes.	Planes are named for some rows, or the two parts are missing or swapped, such as a sagittal plane said to make front and back parts.	No planes are named.
Analysis in words	Questions 1 to 4 are answered accurately: shared cavities with the diaphragm as the divider, the thumb read from the anatomical position, the body's-own right applied to the radio call, and one concrete limitation of the atlas or descriptions; the chosen reflection option is answered.	The questions are attempted, but one or two answers misplace a structure, read left and right as the viewer's, or give a vague limitation.	The analysis questions are not answered.
Critique of the chatbot or of the printed flawed analysis	On either route, at least two errors are quoted and corrected with evidence from the student's own table or Chapter 1, and one correct point is acknowledged; both routes earn this band equally.	On either route, errors are named but corrected without evidence, or only one error is caught.	No critique appears on either route, or pasted output is submitted without any checking.

Quality Gate

Every identification comes from your own atlas work or the printed fallback descriptions, never from memory or a chatbot.
The view was set to the anatomical position, palms forward, before any directional statement was written.
Every directional statement names both structures, and proximal and distal appear only for limbs.
Every plane is named by the two parts its cut makes.
No measurement, study, or source is invented anywhere in the submission.
The critique quotes the chatbot or the flawed analysis and corrects at least two errors with evidence from your table or Chapter 1.

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