First day of classes

Today marks the first day of classes at Mississippi State University.  The first day is always an exciting time, and probably scary for some of the students.  I was talking with my wife the other day, and since we both started Kindergarten at age 5 back in 1987, we have either been in school or working at a university for the past 26 years.  We both love our jobs and interacting with the students.  I tell all my students that I want them to be successful and will do anything I can to help them succeed. 

I am teaching 3 courses this semester, and 2 of the classes are ones I have not taught previously.  I am teaching anatomical kinesiology for the 9th time during my 4 years at Mississippi State, and it is easily one of my favorite classes.  It is basically an overview of musculoskeletal anatomy starting with the foot and working up the body to the head and then down to the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.  My goal for the students by the end of the semester is that when they see a person performing a movement, they can name the joints that are involved, and the muscles that the person is using to accomplish the goal of the movement.

A new class I am teaching this semester is neural control of human movement.  I have previously taught motor development and motor learning, so I have some experience teaching about the nervous system.  To me, the nervous system is the most important system in the body, especially when it comes to human movement.  The nervous system is probably the most complex system as well, which makes the course challenging but fun.  There are many neural processes that occur during voluntary movement that we are not even aware of the majority of the time, and even the smallest disruption can cause errors in movement.  I am planning on starting another series of blog post on neural control very shortly.

The third class I am teaching this semester is a freshman seminar based on the television show "House."  This is a one hour course designed for students that are new to Mississippi State.  I have been a big fan of the show House and all the different medical mysteries on the show.  We are going to examine some the cases on the show and see how realistic they are.  We will also discuss why the doctors choose specific diagnostic tests.  It should be a lot of fun and a learning experience for all of us.

On the research side, we are about to begin a study this Wednesday investigating the relationship between ankle laxity ("looseness in the ankle joint"), balance, and landing kinetics (forces).  The study will examine people that have never sustained an ankle sprain, people that sprain their ankles frequently, and people that have sprained their ankle before but do not have any long term problems.  We are trying to see if there are differences in these variables between these different groups.  Several undergraduate students are taking a prominent role in this study.

All in all, it should be an exciting semester.  I am going to do my best to post at least two blog posts a week, so be sure to check back regularly.