Beth Anne Carroll
Staff Writer

The senior anatomy classes are taking an interesting approach to hands on learning. This past week, the seniors anatomy students dissected cats to witness firsthand the body systems they studied all year.

After spending the entire school year learning about various body systems and dissecting individual organs, this time the students had the opportunity to dissect and look at every system together.

“We dissect the cats as an overview of everything we learn throughout the year. It gives students a firsthand look at everything they have learned and the structure of the cat’s body is similar to the human body,” anatomy teacher Jodie Deinhammer said.

The students spent an entire week working on the dissection, working by body system. They are now putting all of their observations together by making a web page featuring pictures and descriptions of several different organs and their structures.

“I loved the dissection,” senior Jackie Clark said. “I have been looking forward to it all year and it was a lot of fun.”

The students have done several dissections throughout the year, meaning they knew what to expect on their final assignment of the year; however, some students still found it overwhelming.

The cats are collected from local pounds after they are euthanized. According to Deinhammer, the cats used for the dissection are taken from the science company, which checks the cat for harmful diseases after they collect them from the pounds. The cats are not killed for the purpose of experimenting.

While the students put a lot of effort into their dissections, they are ultimately graded on their website. Each system gets a page on the site, with different requirements, such as microscopic pictures of organs, labeled pictures of the systems and visuals of the inside of organs.

The assignment tests the knowledge and abilities the students have accumulated throughout the year; however, the dissection does not just serve as a review.  Students also have the benefit of actually seeing the systems they learned about individually as a whole structure.

“We spent so much time learning about each system, but with the cat we got to see all of the body’s systems working together,” Clark said. “It was really cool and educational.”

Over the course of the dissection, students not only had the chance to test their past knowledge, but learn new things as well, all while participating in a once in a life time experiment.