Most people have dissected a small animal at some point in their formal schooling, be it a frog, a pig, a cat, or another four-legged creature. Well, we at CCI recently had the honour of dissecting a cute little rabbit. On November 9th at 2:55 pm, we sat in the Grade 11 biology classroom. Together with Miss Schiller we learned how to dissect an animal. Thanks to her she explained to us how we had to cut the animal step-by-step and analyze its parts. We were able to closely observe what we previously studied on via a textbook or YouTube video. For example, we got to inspect a pair of lungs, which allowed us to simulate the inhalation and aspiration of the animal. We observed the trachea, the esophagus, and the heart. During the course we were able to study the heart through a series of illustrations. For this reason, in addition to the rabbit's body, we also analyzed the large heart of a pig during the dissection. I also tried to extract the brain of the rabbit but since it was inside a very hard shell, the skull, it was very difficult to do so. It was certainly a unique experience, but above all very interesting from every point of view. It was nice for all of us to be able to put into practice all the studies we had done during the course to verify the concepts studied. We had a lot of fun because as well as being a typical day in school, it was also a way to spend the afternoon in good company.
WARNING: Graphic dissection pictures below. Stop scrolling if you do not want to see images of dissected specimens.
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Valerie is dissecting the lobes of the lungs after they had been inflated to show the process of respiration.
Valerie is holding different chambers of a pig heart that have been carefully separated to allow students to see the structures within.
Gaia and Valerie are observing the musculo-skeletal system of the rabbit.
Valerie attempts to open the skull of the rabbit to observe its brain.
