Elizabethtown College Unveils Cutting-Edge Anatomy and Physiology Lab
Elizabethtown College's new Anatomy and Physiology classroom and lab reflects the college’s dedication to providing cutting-edge, hands-on learning experiences for students in health-related programs, supporting over 500 aspiring healthcare professionals annually. Image: Courtesy of Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown College has opened a state-of-the-art Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) Classroom and Laboratory, a transformative space designed to enhance the learning experience for students pursuing careers in health-related fields. The college is located in Elizabethtown, PA.
The new facility, located in the Lyet Wing of the Masters Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering, was officially dedicated on November 7, 2024, in a ceremony attended by college officials, faculty, and donors. The project team included The Collaborative (architect), Scheeser Buckley Mayfield (engineer), Benchmark (general contractor), and TBJ inc. (cadaver lab tables).
This facility represents a major investment in the college's commitment to providing students with an advanced education in the sciences, particularly for those enrolled in health-related programs, which attract more than 500 students annually. The new A&P lab aims to address the growing demand for high-quality, hands-on learning environments that foster deep understanding and skill development in disciplines critical to the medical field.
A space designed for collaborative learning
The new A&P Classroom and Laboratory is a collaborative, active-learning environment that allows students to engage directly with the material. Designed with flexibility in mind, the facility includes two classrooms, each tailored for teaching anatomy and physiology. The rooms are separated by a removable wall that doubles as a whiteboard, offering instructors the ability to create one large teaching space for up to 48 students or two smaller classrooms for 24 students each.
“The design of the Anatomy and Physiology space was influenced by the goal of creating a dynamic space that will be welcoming and inspiring to students and will optimize the ability of faculty to deliver this challenging topic in the best, most accessible way possible,” says Anya Goldina, associate professor of biology at Elizabethtown College.
This adaptable configuration is one of the many ways the new facility supports dynamic, student-centered learning. The classrooms feature advanced technological tools, including multiple screens and cameras that can be interconnected for enhanced visual learning. These features allow for better viewing and interaction during demonstrations, fostering a more engaging educational experience for students.
Advanced lab features for hands-on training
The new A&P lab is equipped with cutting-edge tools that allow students to learn anatomy in a way that is often only available in graduate-level programs. The space includes two specialized laboratory rooms designed for dissection, with one room able to accommodate two cadavers and the other four. Each dissection station is equipped with high-quality, downdraft dissecting tables, which provide a well-ventilated environment to conduct dissections safely and efficiently.
Overhead surgical lighting and high-definition cameras at each station project live dissections to large screens, allowing the entire class to observe and engage with the material in real-time. This feature ensures that all students, regardless of their position in the room, can view the dissection clearly and interact with the content, providing an immersive and collaborative learning experience.
The laboratory is also outfitted with specialized storage areas, including a temperature-controlled cold storage room for cadaver preservation and a separate space for dry specimens. Adjacent to the labs, a scrub room equipped with washing stations and lockers mimics a clinical laboratory setting, further preparing students for real-world healthcare environments.
“For the temperature-controlled cold storage, we needed to make sure that we would have the ability to regulate temperature and maintain access to power, even during potential power outages in the entire building. In addition, it was important for us to have sufficient space to accommodate more anatomical donors, should we decide to offer more courses that rely on donors, such as Advanced Anatomy and the Graduate Anatomy course. In addition, we also wanted to have a refrigerator and a cabinet to house preserved specimens or solutions that require refrigeration,” says Goldina.
“The storage of the dry specimen room needed to be large enough to accommodate our teaching materials and it had to be easily accessible by faculty. The space allows us to maintain the actual teaching spaces free of clutter and help maintain the spacious, professional feel that we were aiming for. Furthermore, the ability to store fragile specimens such as bones, anatomical models, and expensive equipment when they are not being used allows us to take better care of our equipment, prolonging their utility.”
The architects, along with multiple campus teams on campus such as Facilities, ITS, and Procurement, worked closely with the faculty to understand student and faculty needs for the lab, adds Goldina. “They designed a space that reflected the needs of current courses, while also developing a design that is dynamic enough to accommodate possible curricular changes and student and faculty interests. The design allows for the growth and evolution of our existing programs while giving us the opportunity to offer engaging courses for decades to come.”
Supporting the growth of health professions programs
Elizabethtown College’s new Anatomy and Physiology space plays a pivotal role in supporting the growth of its health professions programs, which include highly sought-after courses in areas like physician assistant (PA) studies. The PA program, launched in 2022, was developed to meet the needs of today’s learners in a rapidly evolving field. The program offers both a BS/MS pathway and a standalone master’s program, emphasizing small class sizes that encourage strong mentoring relationships between students and faculty.
The college’s health-related programs, which have grown in demand over the years, benefit significantly from the new A&P lab. The facility is a direct response to the increasing interest in health professions and ensures that Elizabethtown students will be well-prepared for their future careers, whether in medicine, healthcare, or research. Flexible options have been included in the lab space to accommodate future growth.
“As we continue to grow our health programs, we envision many more students taking the courses that we teach in this space. This means that the lab will need to accommodate possibly more sections of anatomy and physiology, as well as other courses that rely on this space, such as advanced anatomy, physiology, and forensic science,” says Goldina. “It is possible that for certain courses, we might choose to have higher enrollment. This might also be useful for seminars, review sessions, and workshops. In such a case, the ability to remove the wall partition that separates our lab into two separate classrooms would allow us to accommodate more students. Similarly, utilizing the wall will allow us to host events that can accommodate diverse needs; allowing for the opportunity to break up into focus sessions and workshops within a minute’s notice.”
Goldina adds that the entire lab space is equipped with multiple-resolution cameras, TV screens, and projectors, allowing instructors to deliver detailed content in multiple modalities and project it to one or both rooms via one or multiple screens. All the furniture, including downdraft dissecting tables and height-adjustable lab tables, can be moved and rearranged to meet the unique needs of the event, workshop, seminar, or class. Foot-operated sinks, as well as ADA-compliant sinks and furniture, also ensures that accessibility to the lab can be maximized to all interested in anatomy and physiology.
Community effort
The successful creation of this transformative space was made possible by a combination of public funding and private donations. A $1.375 million grant from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) for Health-Related Learning Spaces provided essential funding for the project. In addition, 16 generous donors contributed more than $1.5 million to support the development of the new classrooms and laboratories.
Jerry Schaber, director of facilities management ay Elizabethtown College, says, “This grant and generous contributions from supportive donors allowed us to meet and exceed current industry standards within the space and incorporate advanced technology that provides for high-quality audio and visual teaching and learning.”
A lasting impact on education
The opening of the new Anatomy and Physiology Classroom and Laboratory marks an exciting milestone for Elizabethtown College. The facility will not only provide students with a high-quality education in the sciences but will also serve as a model for future growth and development in the College's health professions programs. As more students pursue careers in these critical fields, the new space ensures they will have the tools and resources necessary to succeed, setting them on a path to make a lasting impact in the healthcare industry.
With its cutting-edge technology, flexible learning environments, and commitment to hands-on training, Elizabethtown College’s new Anatomy and Physiology lab represents the future of health education. Says Goldina, “Over the past five years, Elizabethtown College has significantly increased its focus on health professions, adding Exercise Science and the Physician Assistant Studies programs. This also has increased the number of students in our Anatomy and Physiology courses, prompting a need for more lab sections and resources to provide top-level education for all our students. In addition, the increased number of health professions students has prompted the development of courses such as Advanced Anatomy—a course that relies heavily on cadaveric dissection and requires facilities to accommodate more donors. The new lab has doubled our holding capacity, allowing multiple anatomy courses to be taught simultaneously, without having to compete for space or resources.”
