Second-year students take prizes in Canadian University Life Sciences Challenge

A group of second-year Bachelor of Health Sciences students who haven’t even finished their anatomy and physiology course took first place in those categories at the Canadian University Life Sciences Challenge.

The team of Jake Hong, Dave Nidumolu, Michael Xie and Victor Kang finished first out of 18 teams in anatomy and physiology at the annual competition hosted by the University of Toronto.

“We felt extremely surprised that our knowledge as a second-year team could compete and surpass that of fourth-year students,” said Xie, speaking on behalf of his team. “I think this speaks to how effective McMaster’s anatomy and physiology program actually is.”

Xie said his group did especially well on the problem-solving questions in the later rounds.

“After talking to some of the students we met, we realized that the depth of our anatomy curriculum, the focus on problem-solving, and the opportunity to work with real specimens isn’t that common in Ontario,” said Xie.

“It is a credit to these students that they were able to compete and win against senior students from Canada’s top universities,” said their instructor Alexander Ball, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. “They won’t even complete the anatomy and physiology course until April.”

Ball added, “The highlight of my day is to be in the anatomy lab for questions and answers with students of this calibre. We only provide the information and experience. It is the students who deserve the credit for taking themselves to this high level of achievement.”