Gross anatomy courses utilize cadaver dissection to teach identification, topography, and spatial relationships of organs. The deconstructive nature of dissection, however, focuses students' attention on the "big picture", followed by a discovery of details. This approach may be useful for many, however some students may prefer to build-up knowledge from the smallest details to the larger picture. Further, if a student can work through the deconstructive process of dissection, then mirror it in a constructive way, they are more likely to have a comprehensive understanding. To investigate if supplementing learning by dissection with a constructive activity would improve students' understanding, 233 undergraduate gross anatomy students were asked to build muscles in clay following their standard lecture and dissection periods. Prior to the clay activity, students watched lecture videos presenting information about muscle actions, completed in-class activities that required application of the information from the videos, and dissected the muscles. Students then took a pre-quiz designed to evaluate their understanding of four specific concepts: 1) origins and insertions, 2) actions based on location, 3) identification, and 4) spatial relationships. During a lab period after the pre-quiz, students built the muscles on a skeletal models. Students then took a post-quiz which evaluated the same four concepts. Students scored significantly higher after completing the clay activity (pre-quiz mean = 56.25%, post-quiz mean = 71.75% (p < 0.0001)). Student scores improved significantly in the areas of spatial relationships, origins and insertions, and identification.