Learning through dissection

(Warning... I'm including pictures of what we were doing with our dissection projects. Please, DO NOT scroll down if this is a problem for you.)

Because you just never know what you are going to find when you visit here....

In my very informal and non-scientific poll on the Ordinary Time facebook page, some people indicated interest in seeing our dissection projects. We just finished the second one this morning.

We have studying the human body and the different body systems. Really, one of the very best ways to really see and understand body systems is through dissection. It helps that M. has always loved dissection and comes equipped with her own dissection tools. (It was a Christmas gift one year.)

 The first thing M. dissected with everyone was a pig heart.
(And now you're going to have to scroll down a little bit because I don't want anyone to accidentally see the pictures if they don't want to.)

She found a valve and everyone could see how it opens and closes.

I had two hearts to work with, so she cut each of them a different direction. In this one they were able to see the different chambers and she demonstrated who the blood can really only move through those chambers in one direction.

This view showed how the different chambers were next to each other and the size of the muscle that pumps the blood.

Dissection was a hit and everyone enjoyed it. So today we moved onto the sheep's head I had bought at the store.

Opening up the package.

Taking a look at it and discussing it's teeth and how everything fits together.

Here you can see the opening up into the mouth and nasal passages and that white rectangular shape to the left of the opening is the epiglottis.

The tongue

Lower jaw bone

Tried as she might, M. just could not get to the brain to look at it. (It is amazing the amount of skull a sheep has to protect its little, tiny brain.) She found a way they could feel it, though. Here's TM...

And D.

M. and K.

It was a great success that took up our morning. What was best in my book is that everyone had been paying attention when we had talked about various body systems earlier and were able to discuss and name various parts so they really knew what they were seeing. 

M. did a great job and I told her she could probably pick-up some extra money by offering her services to other families to do dissection. She didn't immediately shoot down my idea... just sayin'