While students at Baker University are not able to physically dissect human bodies, they have the next best thing. A recent addition to the exercise science program, a virtual dissection table, allows students to look at various parts of the human body.

The Anatomage table replaces cadaver labs and gives students the opportunity to view different systems in the body and see them from many different angles.

“We can flip the body over easily and isolate systems,” Director of Exercise Science Chris Todden said. “Up to this point, we’ve had either plastic models or paper. The table allows students to not only see things better, but see things isolated.”

Students are able to see any system of the body they choose. For example, students can view the nervous system or the cardiovascular system and look at each part from any angle.

“The Anatomage table has uploaded CAT scans of people in diseased states,” Todden said. “These range from obesity to aneurisms to even heart disease. These are actual CAT scans of actual patients.”

The Anatomage table is used for a variety of classes and is not limited to exercise science. Baker uses the table for many different classes including Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology, and a Special Populations class. Todden said that the table will even be used in psychology classes soon.

Exercise science major Josh Kock is a teaching assistant for Todden and is in charge of answering students’ questions involving the table.

“I spent two weeks (before school started) messing around with it,” Kock said. “I watched a lot of videos on YouTube and learned as much as I could.”

Kock thinks the Anatomage table is “the best thing this school has.” Being a lover of exercise science, he strongly believes it will help students to learn about the human body in ways they otherwise wouldn’t be able to learn.

“We are able to cut open as many cadavers as we want,” Kock said. “We can look at whatever we want, and I think that’s amazing.”

Todden believes that Baker University is one of the few universities that has an Anatomage table for exercise science classes.

A donor who believed in the expansion of the exercise science program aided in the purchase of the table. The Anatomage table will serve as a marketing tool for the exercise science program in years to come.

“The Anatomage table helps us with maintenance costs by replacing the cadaver labs,” Director of Marketing and Communications Chris Smith said. “It’s a terrific and modern tool that few institutions have across the country, and Baker is one of them.”