Using da Vinci to Teach Anatomy.

Photo: Caryn Babaian.

Biology teacher Caryn Babaian of Bucks County Community College in Newton, Pennsylvania, won second place in Science Magazine’s 2006 Visualization Challenge:

Some things never grow old. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, first drawn more than 500 years ago, is still teaching people about the intricacies of the human body. Biology teacher Caryn Babaian of Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, uses the iconic sketch as a "multi-conceptual image" in her introductory anatomy class to illustrate three crucial anatomical concepts: rotation, transparency, and transverse section. Babaian requires her students to draw the image in their notebooks as they watch it take shape on the blackboard. Panel of judges member Thomas Lucas says even though the use of the image "gave inspiration to a few people, the effect on them might have been more powerful than something that went over the mass media."

See the winner’s list: Link