“Feel Like a Student!”
As part of the “Feel like a student!” project, initiated by I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, on May 15, 2023, future applicants were introduced to the Department of Medical Biology.
The teachers showed the future applicamts the classrooms and the educational biological museum, conducted thematic workshops on the basics of the biology of individual development, medical genetics and medical parasitology.
During the workshop on the biology of individual development, Professor L.Ya. Fedoniuk presented a lot of interesting information about the patterns of ontogenesis of animal organisms, about the peculiarities of prenatal human development, and told the future schoolleavers about the meaning of biologically programmed stages of ontogenesis. The future students observed with great enthusiasm the stages of embryonic ontogenesis of amphibians and humans, which were demonstrated and illustrated by the head of the department.
Professor L. Ya. Fedoniuk clearly demonstrates to students models with the stages of embryonic development of amphibians and a photo-portrait of prenatal human development
The workshop in medical genetics, conducted by the Assistant Professor of the Department of Medical Biology O. B. Furka, included a conversation with students on the topic “Fundamentals of human genetics”. Future students got acquainted with the mechanism of inheritance of blood groups and the Rhesus factor on the example of situational problems, got acquainted with the concepts of “phenotype” and “genotype”, as well as with the causes of mutations in the human body.
Guests also had the opportunity to view karyotypes, pedigrees and photos of phenotypic manifestations of chromosomal diseases. The students showed particular activity when discussing the methods of prevention of hereditary pathology and ways to prevent the influence of mutagenic factors and negative environmental factors on human heredity.
Assistant Professor O. B. Furka speaks with the students about the rules of compiling pedigrees and the peculiarities of types of inheritance
The acquaintance with the Department of Medical Biology continued in the classroom, where the Senior Lecturer Ya. S. Stravskyi held a workshop in medical parasitology, telling the students about the role of endo- and ectoparasites in human life, the ways of infection and penetration of parasites into the human body, their role in the development of parasitic infestations; the teacher noted that helminths parasitize in all human organs, as the ways and methods of invasion are diverse. The guests were most interested in macropreparations of arthropods and micropreparations of helminths, which they looked at with interest under a light microscope.
Workshop for future students on microscopy technique
Associate Professor S. S. Podobivskyi talked about the role of insects and ticks as carriers of pathogens of human diseases and emphasized that the damage caused by these diseases to humanity is enormous, as pandemics of plague and typhus devastated entire countries. Students had the opportunity to look at photographs of human parasites and get acquainted with the specifics of the structure of their life forms at different stages of development.
Старший викладач Стравський Я. С. та доцент Подобівський С. С. ознайомлюють учнів із медико-біологічними аспектами паразитизму.
Acquaintance with the Department of Medical Biology ended with a visit to the educational and biological museum named after I.I. Yaremenko, which is an educational facility of the department, and a review of its expositions by future students. Associate Professor I.B. Pryvrotska paid special attention to the exhibition “Medical and biological aspects of parasitism”, which highlights the principles of the interaction between the parasite and the host and clearly demonstrates the natural-focal nature of parasitic diseases, giving a clear idea of the relationship between the way of life of animals and the manifestations of parasitic diseases. In addition, the guests were presented with the expositions “The Animal Kingdom in the Eukaryote Empire”, “Poisonous Animals”, “The Concept of the Ecosystem in Modern Ecology”, which aroused the keen interest of the entrants. The guests had many questions when considering the macropreparations of mammals and reptiles.
Associate Professor I.B. Pryvrotska conducts the tour in the educational and biological museum
named after I. I. Yaremenko
Inquisitive schoolchildren had a lot of questions, they listened with enthusiasm to the teachers’ stories, learned a lot of useful information for themselves, took part in workshops and got aesthetic pleasure from what they saw. Live communication, first-hand information, a museum, classrooms in which student life will take place, a positive mood and bright impressions – all this guests received from visiting the Department of Medical Biology!