{"id":14214,"date":"2026-10-07T09:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=14214"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:20:22","slug":"uw-stout-polytechnic-cadaver-lab-trains-future-medical-professionals-through-steam-camps-high-school-programs","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-stout-polytechnic-cadaver-lab-trains-future-medical-professionals-through-steam-camps-high-school-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Stout Polytechnic Cadaver Lab trains future medical professionals through STEAM camps, high school programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
A UW-Stout Polytechnic student, right, talks about human anatomy during a Cadaver Lab Experience for high school students.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a high school student from Ellsworth captivated by anatomy and physiology, Shelby Saenger<\/strong> was amazed when she had the opportunity to tour UW-Stout Polytechnic\u2019s Cadaver Lab<\/a>. Now, she\u2019s helping teens experience that same wonder as they investigate medical careers at the Human Anatomy Exploration Camp, which is being held this week at UW-Stout Polytechnic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was just fascinated and curious that I was able to see what is in my own body,\u201d recalled Saenger, now a lecturer in the university\u2019s biology department<\/a>. \u201cIt sparked an interest in Stout as well. I thought, \u2018Wow, these students get to do this for a whole semester.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until later, after Saenger received a bachelor\u2019s degree from UW-Stout Polytechnic and a master\u2019s degree from the University of Minnesota and then taught at several colleges in the Twin Cities, that she recognized how unusually accessible the Cadaver Lab is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot every bachelor\u2019s degree student has the type of experience that I got at Stout,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very unique. I\u2019ve taught at many universities where they just have pictures or some plastic models, but they do not get the in-depth experience to be able to see things firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Human Anatomy Exploration Camp, Aug. 9-13, Saenger will teach high school students about major anatomical systems with the help of specimens from the Cadaver Lab, such as donated human hearts, kidneys and brains. Students will also research diseases and disorders that can impact these systems and then create informational aids \u2013 such as models, posters or drawings \u2013 to share their knowledge with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program is one of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art\/Design and Math) Summer Camps<\/a> that sixth- through 12th-grade school students have attended on campus this summer. More than 450 students have taken part in 37 camps that focus on everything from 3D printing and plastics engineering to freshwater science and video production. These middle and high schoolers learn in facilities such as the Cadaver Lab, which is just one of the nearly 300 laboratory and studio spaces on campus, where labs outnumber traditional classrooms by a 3-to-1 ratio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab guides students toward medical careers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Each year, the Cadaver Lab Experience<\/a> provides unique educational opportunities for high school students from around the region. High school visitors, who are often taking Advanced Placement Biology and Anatomy courses, explore the Cadaver Lab in the Jarvis Hall Science Wing with guidance from UW-Stout Polytechnic students and faculty. The undergraduates teach visiting teens about the human brain and spinal cord, heart and lungs, digestive system, muscles and the body cavities \u2013 all with the help of donated cadavers and specimens. This past spring, more than 600 students from 27 high schools took part in these outreach programs, which are supported in part by a grant from Marshfield Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one of these experiences that left a deep impression on Saenger when she was in high school. While she had dissected frogs and fetal pigs, \u201cThat does not have the gravity of the experience of being able to see human specimens,\u201d she said. \u201cI really appreciated that when I was a high school student, and even more when I was at Stout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
Dr. Alexandra Hall, a senior lecturer in the biology department, speaks to students in the Cadaver Lab.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Cadaver Lab stands apart not only as one of only two of its kind in west-central Wisconsin, but also because of the hands-on access it offers to undergraduate students. At most public universities, such cadaver facilities are primarily used by graduate students, said Dr. Alexandra<\/strong> Hall<\/strong>, a senior lecturer in the biology department who oversees the lab. \u201cWe\u2019re the only one that I know of that allows undergraduates to do actual dissections,\u201d Hall said. The lab is used extensively by students in the dissection class, who do a near full dissection of new donor bodies, as well as those in advanced human anatomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA cadaver gives you a visceral experience of how our bodies are constructed that absolutely cannot be replicated by a plastic model, a digital image or certainly a diagram in a book,\u201d said Hall, who previously worked for 20 years as a family physician and has been teaching at UW-Stout Polytechnic for the past 14 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cadaver Lab is an invaluable resource for UW-Stout Polytechnic students interested in becoming physicians, occupational or physical therapists, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists or other health professionals. Hall, who is advisor for the university\u2019s pre-health program<\/a>, said there are about 100 pre-health students at UW-Stout Polytechnic. These students are prepared to fill the state\u2019s growing health care workforce gap, which is especially acute in rural areas: Of Wisconsin\u2019s 72 counties, 37 are federal designated as primary care shortage areas while 40 are mental health shortage areas<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to access to the Cadaver Lab, pre-health students benefit from UW-Stout Polytechnic\u2019s small class sizes and polytechnic focus, which emphasizes applied learning, business and industry collaborations, and career-focused education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the latter element that helped bring Saenger\u2019s career back to UW-Stout Polytechnic. Before graduating in 2017, she shadowed several physicians and determined that medicine wasn\u2019t a good fit for her. Instead, she decided she wanted to continue to learn \u2013 and teach \u2013 about the human body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved the faculty I met here,\u201d Saenger said. \u201cMany of those I met when I was touring campus are still here today, and now I get to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Written by Tom Giffey, UW-Stout Polytechnic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwstout.edu\/about-us\/news-center\/cadaver-lab-trains-future-medical-professionals-through-steam-camps-high-school-programs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a high school student from Ellsworth captivated by anatomy and physiology, Shelby Saenger was amazed when she had the opportunity to tour UW-Stout Polytechnic\u2019s Cadaver Lab. Now, she\u2019s helping teens experience that same wonder as they investigate medical careers at the Human Anatomy Exploration Camp, which is being held this week at UW-Stout Polytechnic. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":14215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[90],"story_category":[148,150,146],"class_list":["post-14214","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-stout-polytechnic","story_category-economy","story_category-featured","story_category-research-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/14214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=14214"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=14214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}