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AIMS Program Making Connections Thousands of Miles from SLU Campus

Education specialist Ray Vollmer recently provided a program via video conferencing to the students of Inuksuk High School, which is located in Iqaluit – the capital of the Canadian province of Nunavut -- just south of the Arctic Circle.

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SLU's Ray Vollmer was able to bring distance learning  programs to Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian province of Nunavut, located just south of the Arctic Circle.

Vollmer conducts about 200 distance learning anatomy programs each school year to schools all over the country, and has even connected with schools in Australia and England. However, what makes the program in Canada unique is the region of the school. It is in a remote, sparsely settled region, with no trees in sight because of the climate, which is too cool to permit the growth of trees.

The city also has a large aboriginal population, which accounts for just over 60 percent of its total residents. Programs such as the one given by Vollmer have not always been possible because of a lack of resources. He was able to connect with the high school through “Connected North”, whose goal is “to provide students in remote, indigenous communities with access to content that is engaging and innovative, with the hopes of increasing feelings of empowerment in school and in life.” “Connected North” helps to connect SLU to Inuksuk High School, which makes the educational program possible.

AIMS is part of the Center for Anatomical Science and Education, Department of Surgery, SLU School of Medicine.  In addition to distance learning, AIMS hosts roughly 8,000 students each school year on-site at their lab in Young Hall. Hands-on program offerings include pig heart dissections, sheep brain dissections and the most popular, cadaver demonstrations. Auditorium presentations are also offered which include a variety of topics such as forensic science, sports medicine, the human reproductive system, human brain and central nervous system.

During the summer, AIMS keeps busy by hosting three summer workshops. The workshops include:

On average, 130 to 150 students attend these workshops which sell out fairly quickly.

Over the years, AIMS has heard from several students who went through the program and chose to come to SLU to pursue their medical degree because of the positive experience they had with AIMS. In fact, several students who came to SLU after attending an AIMS program, come back to help lead cadaver demonstrations to high school students once they complete their gross anatomy course in their first year.