Folsom high schooler teaching young students human anatomy

Some people may remember the old song "Dem Bones," which taught children about anatomy of the human skeleton with catchy, easy-to-grasp lyrics: "The leg bone's connected to the knee bone, the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone," etc. A Folsom teenager is taking anatomy lessons for children to a much higher level with a program she designed all on her own, to introduce young students to this important science which she says often doesn't get the attention it deserves. Anya Mantena is a junior at Folsom high school and founder of Anatomy Adventures, which is a program that offers free anatomy workshops for students K-8th grade. She also designed her own website which offers lesson plans and other resources. Mantena said she always gravitated towards science and STEM but during her freshman year, she took part in a hands-on Museum of Science and Curiosity program where she worked as a camp counselor with kids from first to eighth grades, teaching them about STEM and other activities. "And through that I learned how to work with kids and I learned a love towards education and especially science education through that program," explained Mantena. The following year she took what she describes as her favorite class of all time: human anatomy and physiology, a life-changing experience. "For me, the human body itself is just so interesting to learn about. The different systems and how they work together," said Mantena. "Biology is a more broad aspect where you learn, yes there's cell and life systems, but you also learn about ecosystems and you touch base on environmental science, but human anatomy I really, really like. It's body systems and body systems only, but I think it's a topic that's not really covered in young education and you only really learn about it in high school." It was at this point Mantena had an epiphany: She loved teaching young kids something new, and she also loved the subject of anatomy. "And the biggest question I had was, how can I combine something that I love, which is science education for kids, with something new and with my favorite subject as of now, which is anatomy," said Mantena. "There's so many STEM classes out there, from engineering to chemistry to biology but I didn't think there was one specifically for anatomy and for the life systems and so I really wanted to implement that." She began teaching classes at the YMCA that summer, with hands-on classes for kids. The same teacher she connected with during that summer program kept in touch and brought her into her own classroom to teach students about anatomy. "The kids are always excited," said Mantena. "They say, 'Oh, I always wondered how our eyes work!' or 'I wondered how our hearts work!' " This sparked the idea for her next endeavor: A website. Mantena describes it as informational but also a resource. "For teachers and other educators, there's a Google form attached to one of the website pages, they can request me to come in and teach a class or if they ever want a fun activity for the kids and for me to come in (to their classroom), they have their own form they can fill out and it will send it to me," explains Mantena. Considering Mantena is a mere 16 years old and is already in a position to teach children about a very complicated science, one can't help but ask how she gained so much knowledge herself at such an early age. "I would say, I think it's a lot of huge props to my anatomy teacher over my sophomore year; I learned so much in this class," explained Mantena. "And it was quite a challenging class itself. I was like struggling, just fighting for that A, but as hard as it was, it was really rewarding and I feel like the information that I learned from that class I applied it to so many more things." This is what Mantena says she loves about anatomy - how it links to so many other sciences and subjects. And the learning never stops. This past summer Mantena took part in a residential program at UC Davis where she did lab research on how air pollution affects the human respiratory tract. From knowledge she gained from that experience and activities she did during that program, she is modifying it and teaching it to her own students. It won't be long until Mantena begins applying to colleges; she's unsure what her future holds but she's pretty sure it's in the medical or dental field (her father is a dentist). Yet she also loves working with students, so she can see a major such as Public Health being an option. For now though, Mantena is happy to grow her website and by getting her story out, hopefully inspire others to join in her efforts to introduce more students to the wonderful world of anatomy. "We are always open for more volunteers," said Mantena. "Actually the biggest thing that I really wanted to get out is public outreach because as many helping hands that want to participate would be really cool. Anatomy is kind of a niche, so trying to find people who are really passionate about the subject is a bit hard but I think that would be great." To learn more about Makena's program, you can visit her website at https://anatomyadventurers.com or her Instagram, @anatomyadventurers.