A has been participating in the Classical Conversations Challenge program this year. Last week she participated in dissection night and I was able to stay and observe. I have always enjoyed dissections and it was so fun to watch the students, especially as the night progressed. At first, A was a bit timid with her specimens but it was awesome to see her and her partner really press in and by the end of the night their faces were so animated with excitement - I love this kind of hands on learning. They dissected a sheep pluck and a cow eye. Warning - dissection photos ahead so if you are squeamish prepare yourself.
A sheep pluck (contains trachea, lungs and heart)
I love that they spent some time sketching and taking notes.
Removing the heart from the pluck
A holding a sheep heart
Cutting the heart in half
Inside view
Examining the inside of the sheep heart
Comparing a sheep heart to a human heart
A piece of sheep heart (for comparison later)
Dissecting into the trachea
Trachea dissection
They used a hand pump inserted into the trachea to manually inflate the lungs.
Cutting a lung in half
Inside view of a lung
Comparison of a piece of heart tissue vs a piece of lung tissue (the heart piece sinks and the lung piece floats)
Dissecting a cow eye
Cow eye with lens detached (looks like a white marble)
Inside the cow eye
Another view
Note - I forgot to mention that A broke her dominant arm a few weeks ago so you see her in a lovely purple cast above. Thankfully, she can still write and play her flute!
Its great when kids have interest in this stuff. We had to dissect a frog in school and I did not like doing that.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand Shelly! I remember the frog I dissected in middle school was full of eggs.
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