Coming Soon To Schools: Dissecting Frogs in 3-D

By Michelle Kung

"When Maurio Medley, an eighth-grade math teacher at Ocoee middle School in central Florida, wants to teach his students how to find the volume of a cylinder, he doesn't turn to a textbook or chalkboard. Instead, he turns on a 3-D-enabled projector to rotate a virtual Euclidian solid.
Schools are trying to keep up with the multiplex, keen to find ways to engage students in an age of 3-D movies and gadgets that make traditional classroom materials look dated. And the technology and equipment makers are eager to create a new market for their 3-D products."

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3D learning tools positive for pupils, says study

BBC News

" Biology teacher Ros Johnson says 3D projections of body organs have given lessons a new direction at the Abbey School in Reading.

A study of the impact of 3D in the classroom has found that it improves test results by an average of 17%.

Increasingly schools are using 3D projectors and learning resources to add a new dimension to learning.

The research, conducted in seven schools across Europe, found that 3D-enabled learning tools helped children concentrate more."

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Students get 3-D views of the human body

By: Deirdre Cox Baker

"The mouse in Alisha Heisterkamp’s hand hovers over the computer program that displays a multicolored, multidimensional depiction of the human body on a screen, seconds before she clicks the device to blow apart the “body” into tiny pieces.

The science students in Steve Saladino’s room at Davenport West High School gasp in surprise. “Cool!” they shout. It gets their attention, Heisterkamp agrees.

The 21-year-old West alumnus returned to her old school recently in her role with Cyber-Anatomy Inc., a cutting-edge Iowa City company that is selling award-winning, 3-D human anatomy software to colleges and school districts around the nation. She is the operations manager for the company and a junior at the University of Iowa. 

“Kids learn by doing,” she said, explaining that the software program employs the same kind of interactive behavior students utilize in video games, cell phones and other applications. 

The software program was developed by an engineering professor, Karim Abdel-Malek, the head of the Center for Computer-Aided Design at the university. "

Iowa City company’s 3-D anatomy software wows global audience

By: George Ford

For customers of an Iowa City company, 3-D images represent more than just a new wave of moviemaking.

Cyber-Anatomy Inc., 1910 S. Gilbert St., developed and markets Cyber-Anatomy Med VR, a three-dimensional, virtual-reality model of the human body. More than 13,000 body parts are displayed in full-color, medically accurate detail.

Karim Abdul-Malek, the founder of Cyber-Anatomy, said Cyber-Anatomy Med VR was developed to meet the needs of medical students in countries where the use of cadavers is difficult because of lack of access or religious reasons.

“Seven years ago, I started a company called Viz-Tek, which sells virtual-reality equipment,” said Abdul-Malek, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa and director of the UI Center for Computer-Aided Design. “We received a call from the Saudi German Hospitals in Saudi Arabia about a 3-D model of the spine on our Web site.

“They told us that they didn’t have cadavers to teach their medical students and asked if we could create a 3-D model of the entire human body. I told them that we could do it, if they were willing to send us a check.”

Over the next several years, Abdul-Malek hired 3-D modelers and simulation engineers — many of them former UI students — to develop the software. The Saudi German Hospitals were pleased with the initial results but felt the software needed to be much more detailed for medical students.

With financial support and medical expertise recruited from Elsevier, the Amsterdam-based publisher of 150-year-old Gray’s Anatomy, Abdul-Malek was able to create an anatomically correct model of the human body."

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