When my mom was in the hospital for four months, after having a stroke, I kept hearing doctors say things about the reasons for my mom’s stroke—things like, “she has a PFO.” I had no idea what this term meant, but I later found out that PFO stands for “patent foramen ovale.” It’s a hole between the right and left atrium in the heart, which allows blood to bypass the lungs during fetal development. The foramen ovale is supposed to close on its own at birth, when the baby begins to breathe on her own, but in 20% of the population, the hole never closes, resulting in a patent foramen ovale. Tests show that, like my mother, I also have a PFO. There is no treatment and usually no symptoms, although doctors suspect that a PFO can allow blood to pool and form clots, and therefore increase the risk of stroke.
Our method of studying this in A&P involved text and a couple heart models in lab (our class is pretty much devoid of technology), but as I suspected, a search of “fetal circulation” on YouTube reveals many creative approaches to understanding fetal circulation and the changes that occur at birth. The following YouTube clips show fetal circulation in a creative and interesting way. I think it also says a lot for how audio and images can be paired with text to demonstrate complex concepts in ways that are easy to understand. These are relatively simple projects that involve still images and audio. It’s exciting to see that some educators are taking advantage of technology-based assignments that students will enjoy much more than sitting idly in a lab and identifying numbers on plastic models. These projects would also help students learn about processes and how different parts of anatomy are related, rather than just focusing on identification and rote memorization.
