Turnbull Centre
The Turnbull Centre for Basic Science
The Turnbull Centre for Basic Science was officially opened in December 2006, following a £750000 refurbishment. As part of the refit, the ex-Anatomy dissecting room and associated seminar rooms, museum and workshop were gutted and reconfigured to form a learning centre with an eight table dedicated dissecting room, a 380m² Anatomy Learning Landscape and an equivalent area Multi-Disciplinary Laboratory.
The primary objective was to create a centre-piece learning centre for first and second year students equipped with latest technology. Flexibility was also a consideration along with creating an environment which made best use of the available space. The result is a facility that can provide simultaneous teaching to 64 students carrying out dissection, 80 students attending Anatomy Landscape classes and a further 80 students in the MDL.
Management Structure
The Turnbull Centre is managed by the Student Office under the academic leadership of Professor Margaret Bird, who is also the designated individual under the Human Tissue Act. Technical and support staff are managed by the Learning Resources Manager, whilst academic input and curriculum matters are managed by Dr. Catherine Molyneux for Anatomy and Dr. Gurdip Hunjan for Physiology.
Centre Staff
Dr. Catherine Molyneux Anatomy lead, Centre for Medical Education
Dr. Gurdip Hunjan Physiology lead, Centre for Medical Education
Mr. Steve Moore Learning Resources Manager, Student Office
Mr. Rejwan Ahmed Senior Technician, Student Office
Mr. Harrison Morgan Teaching Technician, Student Office
Vacancy Teaching Technician, Student Office
Teaching Staff
Professor Margaret Bird, Centre for Medical Education
Dr. Julian Millar lead for Cardiorespiratory (CME)
Dr. Nigel Yeatman lead for FunMed (CME)
Dr. Anne Hills lead for Human Development (CME)
Dr. Catherine Molyneux (CME)
Dr. Gurdip Hunjan (CME)
Dr. Laide Olugbile (CME)
Vacancy Clinical Teaching fellow (CME)
Dr. David Burleigh lead for Metabolism (BICMS)
Dr. Lesley Robson lead for Locomotion (BICMS)
Dr. Greg Michael lead for Microanatomy (BICMS)
Dr. Peter Shortland lead for Brain and Behaviour (BICMS)
The Dissecting Room
Eight tables are provided and dissection classes run for ten weeks a year. To assist, the room is equipped with a high resolution camera and a 50” plasma screen. Image capture is another facility to enable staff to obtain images from dissected cadavers and place these on the anatomy server for use in the Landscape.
The Learning Landscape
Ten stations are set up each able to accommodate up to eight students. Each station is equipped with two PCs that form a virtual teacher network (vtn). The vtn is a firewall protected network that enables anatomical images, videos, x-rays, MRI scans, web sites and PowerPoint presentations to be displayed whilst being controlled from a single source, ie the teacher. This reduces end-user interaction to simply viewing the predetermined images, without having to select or alter any settings. In addition each PC can act as a standalone machine, showing CD’s or DVD’s and these are used for interactive quizzes. This enhances the Landscape room’s flexibility in the range of facilities it can offer.
The primary method of teaching anatomy in the Landscape room is by using media supported prosections. The Landscape is equipped with numerous anatomical models detailing various anatomical structures, and potted specimens of specific organs.
Students use the virtual teacher system and highly detailed models to learn about anatomy and their understanding of body systems.
The Multi-Disciplinary Laboratory
Designed to accommodate Physiology classes, biochemistry and first year dental classes the MDL is equipped with digital data capture facilities to enable large group demonstrations. Wherever possible the equipment is the same as that used in the clinical skills centre and out on hospital training.
During the summer of 2009 over £50 000 was spent installing digital clinical skills teaching equipment. This has meant new classes have been designed and new study modules developed. As we move more towards digitally capturing data and an integration of basic science with clinical skills then the facilities we have established have put us in a position to expand and keep pace as demand changes.
