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Sculpturing in Surgery: A Marriage between Art and Science

Department: Division of Surgery and Interventional Science and BASc

Project Team: Tooba Arif (Lead), Irene Costentine (Support), Faith Hyun Jeon (Support), Hirsham Band (Support) and Dr Deepak Kalaskar (staff partner)

(edited by Abbie King)

Sculpture…

Our aim in setting up this ChangeMakers pilot course was to bring together the disciplines of art and surgery to provide a practical learning experience relevant to students from UCL surgical MSc programmes and the Art & Sciences BASc. Anatomy is a common focus in these degree programmes and this was taught during the course [we put on] through the creation of sculptures of various body parts. It was hoped that a hands-on learning experience such as this would provide a valuable supplement to the lectures and seminars students already had timetabled. Other aims included developing transferrable skills such as observation, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and an appreciation for symmetry and proportion. Students learning from one another was also a key element to our idea, so we placed students from art and surgery backgrounds next to each other.

We had a good interest in the course from both disciplines and recruited 16 students (including our team), which the artists who taught the course thought was an appropriate number. Prior to the course, the students completed a questionnaire stating their reasons for participating, and it was reassuring to see that these matched our aims, with themes emerging in their answers such as 'to apply my anatomical knowledge/learn anatomy' and 'I am interested in the fusion of art and science'. Afterwards, the feedback from a second questionnaire was very positive. 100% of the participants said they would enrol again, and 100% felt that it should be incorporated as a learning tool in their degree course.

" I appreciated that UCL was entrusting us with taking control of our own education

I think the organisation was well done by my team and I, partly owing to the fact that we initially set targets and deadlines in our proposal. The artists we recruited were fantastic and are world-renowned in the field of anatomy in sculpture, and they did a great job conveying knowledge and enthusiasm to the students. In the post-course feedback, 100% of students said their expectations had been met by the course. When asked what they had gained from it, most students cited a few common reasons: how to produce a sculpture, improvement of anatomical knowledge and observation skills. Interestingly, others said 'creativity', 'a new hobby', and 'new friends from another discipline within UCL'. This is reassuring as it shows the course invested in the student's futures both academically but also from the point of view of learning a new skill that can be used for work or leisure.

I appreciated that UCL was entrusting us with taking control of our own education and providing us with some money to set up this pilot study. I also very much appreciated the support provided by the UCL ChangeMakers team and our staff contact in organising and implementing the course.

The course itself ran smoothly and I felt that I had delegated and planned well in my capacity as lead student, so that everybody had a role in organising it and we had no stress on that weekend. In fact, we were able to join in and enjoy the course too. I would advise [other students thinking of getting involved with UCL ChangeMakers] to try as much as possible to stick to the targets and deadlines they set themselves initially, by which they would be able to successfully complete their project within the allowed timeframe and fit it around their academic commitments without stress. We organised our course for post-exams but sorted everything out prior to our revision period so the two would not interfere with each other.