Since my daughter is taking 9th grade biology in her science studies with Dr. Jay Wile, dissections were inevitable!
MOVING – CONQUER THE DISSECTION SPECIMENS
I was SO glad I ordered everything last summer, because suddenly, we are moving!
Just as we were completing a months long remodel of our dream homeschool room, we received the news that we were moving from Texas to Virginia.
Carefully disguised in our bookcase that had been French-Countrified, were the dissection specimens I had ordered last summer.
Not wanting to pack them, I decided to conquer with a little help from my sister-in-law who is a veterinarian.
SIL VETERINARIAN TO THE RESCUE
Unlike me, she loved dissection labs in college and of course understands which of the innards are which, even though they don’t look anything like diagrams.
Despite my science honors classes and labs, the innards were usually unrecognizable to me.
On the day the appraiser came to the house, I packed up the lab specimens and the kids for an afternoon of Biology I dissections with their aunt.
MY DIGITAL PHOTOS PLAN
My plan was to take photos while SIL did the dissections with the kids.
Later, when my daughter actually needs to do the labs, she can do her drawings based on my digital pictures.
Also, she can use the zoom feature in the digital imaging program and look at any body parts up close for extra detail.
My SIL was impressed with this, saying that is how labs are being taught these days at colleges.
MY LITTLE NEPHEWS JOINED US
While my SIL had a grand time reliving her high school and college labs with the dissections, I had a grand time playing auntie to my nephews.
I drew a picture of a fish for my 2 1/2 year old nephew, and cuddle with my baby nephew while giving him his bottle!
I don’t know when I’ll get to see them again, so I had to soak this up!
CONQUERING 4 DISSECTIONS
Although my SIL was dubious that we’d get all 4 dissections done, I was a woman on a mission.
My son really got into the dissections and would probably still be there exploring if given the choice.
However, I made sure we got all 4 dissections done before we had to leave for dinner: earthworm, crayfish, fish, and frog.
DISSECTING THE EARTHWORM
Dissection number one was an earthworm.
My only scientific contribution for the day, which so impressed me in high school, was to have my kids run their fingers up and down the earthworm to feel the setea, which it used to pull itself through the soil.
DISSECTING THE CRAYFISH
Dissection number two was the crayfish.
Here are the gills…
They figured out that it was a male.
DISSECTING THE PERCH
Dissection number three was a perch, which thrilled my son who is a fan of fish.
Wish I had my video on, because this was the fish that got away!
While my son was cutting into him, it flew out of his hands, flipped in the air, and landed on the floor.
My son had a really hard time opening him up, then once we started taking a look around, nothing matched the pictures in the biology book.
We did figure out (we think) what the air bladder was and that was pretty cool.
Oh, we did have a good time inspecting the differences in the fins and looking at the gills.
Since we were clueless about the rest of it, we simply explored the insides.
Although my son tried to get into the brain, it had a hard head.
DISSECTING THE FROG
Dissection number four was the frog…which did not come with directions.
The lab expected the kids to have enough experience under their belts to do a little on-line research to learn what they should expect to see.
Hmmmm….didn’t have time for that, so we just dug in.
My SIL and I remembered how to cut one open from our high school and college labs.
Upon first viewing, it looked like this…
Then I told them to just explore.
SIL really got into this (so did my son) and she was able to figure almost everything out.
We never would have come to the same conclusions on our own.
Her explanations were extremely logical and taught us a lot about doing future dissections.
Because this anatomy is a little more similar to a mammal, and she works with dogs and cats, she was able to draw from what she knew of dogs and cats and apply that to the frog.
For example, she figured out which organ was the heart, because it felt like a muscle.
She figured out the liver because the gall bladder was obvious.
The lungs made sense after finding two of them…deflated.
We think this was a female because we think these are the eggs that were pulled out.
SIL and I thought they looked a little like caviar…not that we’ve ever eaten any…nor are we interested.
WHAT DID EVERYONE THINK OF THAT EXPERIENCE?
In the end, my daughter, who was dreading this opportunity, figured it wasn’t so bad after all.
My son obviously had a blast!
I had to make sure he gave his sister equal opportunity.
My four month old nephew would not let me sit while I gave him his bottle.
Instead, I had to stand so he could see everything, while he leaned as close to the dissection as possible.
It was not easy feeding him while he strained to watch every detail.
Meanwhile, my 2 1/2 year old nephew did not want to touch the fish at first.
Finally, he touched it and then he thought that was disgusting.
However, he enjoyed pointing out plants and animals in my daughter’s biology book.
My SIL felt like she didn’t do enough, especially because she had to tend to her sons quite a bit.
Actually, I think she did a wonderful job!
The kids got far more constructive direction from her than they ever could have from me.
My strengths are in other areas, but not dissections.
And I am thrilled that I don’t have to tote these things to Virginia.
