HAPS

If you're a teacher of human anatomy and/or physiology and you're not a member of HAPS--the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society--then you should be!

HAPS is an organization dedicated solely to supporting folks like you and me. Folks from all levels of education from secondary, to community college, to four-year schools and universities, to medical education are welcomed into a collegial, supportive atmosphere.

The annual conference is an informal but power-packed week of update seminars by experts in most fields of human biology, workshops in which A&P professors share their tips, tricks, successes, and failures, and a lot of opportunities for networking with folks from all over North America.

Besides the annual conference and the occasional regional conference, there are resources such as a model curriculum, animal use resources, safety resources, cadaver use resources, standardized student testing, and so much more!

One of my favorite HAPS resources is the HAPS EDucator (HAPS ED), the official journal of the society. It's packed with organization news and updates, teaching tips, content updates, and more.

Another favorite is HAPS Institute . . . a rather biased opinion considering that I'm the Director of HAPS Institute (HAPS-I) and a member of the faculty. HAPS-I is the professional continuing education program of HAPS. The program offers several graduate biology courses each year in flexible formats geared to the academic life. Graduate biology credit from the University of Washington is granted in the courses, which focus on both content and teaching applications in areas often perceived as being hard to understand, hard to learn, and hard to teach. I'll be sharing more about HAPS-I in another message soon!