We have had a great time studying human anatomy using an apologia science curriculum. Most memorable memories will certainly include the day our goat ate half of our paper skeleton on the wall, the day our colleague (a vet) cut open the church goat that died of an unknown illness. The plastic bag and other random objects found wrapped inside gave us a clue.
But then there was the day we dissected a cow eyeball. One of our friends got married and they slaughtered a bull. They were thrilled to donate a cow eyeball to our classroom.
Rolf and Joel watched as the uncle of the groom split the skull in half with precision using a cumbersome axe. After numerous precise blows to the centre of the forehead, you could see a perfect cross-section of the animal's skull and muzzle. After observing sinus hairs that ended at the eye, he extracted the eyeball.
There are some obvious differences between the human eye and a cow eye – size is an obvious one but more unique is the cow's rectangular pupil.
It was truly remarkable to have our colleague who is conveniently a vet, dissect it for us. We squeezed the tough optic nerve, touched the pupil, iris, rolled the lens in our fingers and played with the vitreous humour (the jelly substance in the eye).
Normally this eyeball would have been enjoyed for its delicacies but we refrained from heating it up in the frying pan instead capturing the moments on camera. A lesson that will be remembered for a long time to come and unlike specimens saturated by smelling formaldehyde, this eyeball was still warm.
But then there was the day we dissected a cow eyeball. One of our friends got married and they slaughtered a bull. They were thrilled to donate a cow eyeball to our classroom.
Rolf and Joel watched as the uncle of the groom split the skull in half with precision using a cumbersome axe. After numerous precise blows to the centre of the forehead, you could see a perfect cross-section of the animal's skull and muzzle. After observing sinus hairs that ended at the eye, he extracted the eyeball.
There are some obvious differences between the human eye and a cow eye – size is an obvious one but more unique is the cow's rectangular pupil.
It was truly remarkable to have our colleague who is conveniently a vet, dissect it for us. We squeezed the tough optic nerve, touched the pupil, iris, rolled the lens in our fingers and played with the vitreous humour (the jelly substance in the eye).
Normally this eyeball would have been enjoyed for its delicacies but we refrained from heating it up in the frying pan instead capturing the moments on camera. A lesson that will be remembered for a long time to come and unlike specimens saturated by smelling formaldehyde, this eyeball was still warm.
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