Elementary, middle school or high school students may enjoy an anatomy presentation about fingerprints that includes hands-on participation. Learning objectives involve how to make and preserve fingerprints, arches, whorls, loops and the causes and uniqueness of fingerprints. Give students pencils and ask them to fill in a rectangle on a piece of paper 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. Place a thumb or finger tip on the penciled-in area. Position a piece of transparent adhesive tape over the gray area on your digit and then place the tape on paper to see the print clearly.
A presentation on the brain could include volunteers from the audience to test out left and right brain dominance. Show an illustration of the two brain hemispheres. Determine hand dominance by asking a volunteer to write her name or throw an item. Identify foot dominance by asking a volunteer to kick a small object or to step onto a particular floor tile. Determine eye dominance by asking a volunteer participant to view a distant object through a paper towel tube. Ear dominance can be demonstrated by telling a volunteer you are going to whisper in her ear. See which ear she turns toward you.
Hand out a human skull to pass around the audience as you teach them about the parts of the head, such as skull bones, parts of the mandible, lateral skull parts, the sensory nerves and facial muscles, features of the orbital region, structures of the outer ear and the scalp. Show a slideshow presentation with illustrations with the parts labeled. Occasionally stop and address whomever is holding the skull and ask him to identify the location of a specific part you name.
Make learning anatomy easier to remember by grouping parts of anatomy in related groups of threes, such as the three body planes, the three layers of skin and the three general venous circulations. Other groupings include the three coverings of the spinal cord, the three bones of the upper jaw, the three middle ear bones, the three general layers of the eye and the three parts of the stomach. Show illustrations of each simultaneously.