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A COURSE IN SCIENTI FIC TERMINOLOGY by ROBERT SCHMIEL Classics 211, Technical Terms of Medicine and the Life Sciences, is offered once a year at the University of Calgary. The course runs for 14 weeks; we meet three times a week for 50 minutes. Approximately 80 students enroll in the course . The course was first taught by ~Iichael Molitor. CUenteZe Since most of the available texts seemed geared to nursing students, T expected large nlUllbers of nursing students and planned the course accordingly. ~!ost of the students were, in fact. able, motivated, and knowledgeable premedical or biology majors. Since the course requires memory but no great intellectual effort, grades ran very high. Text The text r used (Smith-Davis) did not prove very challenging, and it required frequent supplementation. I shall, therefore, use a more complete and demanding text (Chabner) which is suitable for a one- or two-term course. One problem in teaching scientifiC! terminology is that all available teaching texts, to my knowledge, present mediC!aZ- terminology. I culled the glossaries of basic texts in biology, zoology and botany and introduced the additional terms periodically ; toward the end of the course I gave students the option of learning cancer terminology or terms used in taxonomy. Fortunately there is considerable overlap in the terminologies of the various life sciences . Method A course which, finally, teaches only the terninology of a discipline is inevitably dull. After going over endless lists of prefixes, suffixes and stems one longs to step aside for a teaching machine . Chabner recommends "asking how and why questions". But I have no intention of attempting to teach science to eighty science majors, and r cannot imagine that my colleagues in the sciences would applaud such an effort. To provide relief from the daily incantation of word lists one can use illustrations of the skeleton, of the anatomical and clinical divisions of the body, etc. without encroaching too far on the bailiwick of the biOlogist. A classicist can usefully supplement the text in certain areas. He can begin with a lecture on ancient medicine, Hippocrates, and the Hippocratic oath. Early in the course he can spend additional time on pronunciation, word structure, the Greek alphabet, medical terns from mythology and history, terms based on numbers and colours, Latin and Greek singulars and plurals, and confusing terms and stems. Taking my cue from Chabner I thumbed through scientific journals for short articles (short enough for xeroxing) chockablock with juicy terms. One can ask the students to be prepared to define any term in the article, or one can compose careful questions on the substance of the article. Such articles are hard to find. I have used: R. Yasuda, T. Nishioka, and Y. Yokota, "Bilateral phrenic nerve palsy in the newborn infant," The JouPnaZ- of PediatriC!B 89 (1976) 986-7. One can also use abstracts from journals. Avoid anything chemical . 26 ROBERT SCH~UEL For relief have a look at the journal Pepspeatives in BioLogy and Mediawe for poetry in a jugular vein. Much of it is more crude than clcver-J . Pringle is the Wordsworth, Dragstedt the Henry Miller of scientific poetrybut a drowning man Tests Frequent tests are helpful (at least every two weeks). Students can be asked to: (1) write terms as dictated, (2) divide terms into their constituent parts, (3) provide definitions for terms or the reverse, (4) provide etymological meanings of terms, (5) match definitions with terms, (6) eliminate the term which does not belong with the group, etc. There are no other requirements for the course than the mastery of the material in the text and handouts. Mate'I'iaZs There are many books for teaching medical terminology, most quite bad . I reconunend Chabner. Nybakken is very useful for the instructor, but .,.,'Quld, I think, not ,.;ork well as a text. Students can be given a choice of medical or scientific dictionaries. Taber's is affordable and provides etymological meanings . I kno\Oo' of no good, affordable (under $15) scientific dictionary. One can supplement the text \Oo'ith handouts . It would be advisable to prepare in advance overhead transparencies of simple diagrams of the skeleton, the cell, divisions of the abdomen, the digest...

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