Using
The Private Eye process to loupe-study and then write a poem about
one's hand was an activity in Dr. Hassoun's anatomy class, designed
to help students make the form function connection for skin. It
demonstrates the interdisciplinary power of The Private Eye.
Anatomy
151
Lansing Community College and
Michigan State University
From
college student Andrew Nay, moving through The Private
Eye process all the way to Form / Function Analysis:
10
Analogies:
The Back of My Hand
Is
like the pulp of a grapefruit
Like a map if a densely populated city
With many roads—
Like a cross-section of a sapling
Like a read of a golf green
Like a cracked desert ground
Like splintered tempered glass
Like the hide of an elephant trunk
Like the stitching of a ball cap
Like the broken shale of a mountain side
Like the wind of a dragonfly
Like random carvings in wax
Dropping
“like”:
the
pulp of a grapefruit
a
map if a densely populated city
With
many roads—
a
cross-section of a sapling
a
read of a golf green
a
cracked desert ground
splintered
tempered glass
the
hide of an elephant trunk
the
stitching of a ball cap
the
broken shale of a mountain side
the
wind of a dragonfly
random
carvings in wax
Poem: The
Back of My Hand
On
the back of my hand lies a city
Of complex routes and roads,
And infinite numbers of crossroads.
On my hand there is a desert
When the water table is low
But tiny hairs of cactus still grow.
The back of my hand is a clock,
The many wrinkles show my time,
Like the trunks of trees young boys climb.
My hand is a pane of glass
That's shattered and stayed in place,
A worn and weathered place.
Form
and Function Connections:
An elephant's trunk is pliable as is the outer epidermis. Their
structures and functions are similar as they are both
flexible, offer protection against harmful organisms,
and shields the important underlying tissues. The stratum
corneum, as compared to the outermost layer of soil in
the desert is rough, dead, even, hard in places. The
hairs, however, still protrude through the surface, much
like a cactus in the desert. The underlying layers of
soil, like the dermis and epidermis of the skin, provide
the nutrient and life processes for this to happen. As
people age, and the pliability and strength of the epidermis
deteriorates, wrinkles become more evident and this is
an important tool interpreting the age of humans. The
same applies to trees when scientists study the ages
of trees such as maples, elms, oaks, and redwoods. The
broken pane of glass is merely just a vivid example how
layer upon layer of keratinized cells form its structure,
and look very similar to that of shattered tempered glass.
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