8th grade
The eighth graders have begun an intensive unit on the human body. The first systems to be studied are the muscular, skeletal and integumentary. In order to learn our muscles and bones we have begun to dress up skeletons. The students will be expected to identify 20 bones, 10 muscles and explain the functions of different tissues along with tendons and ligaments. This week’s lab found them dissecting chicken to get a hands-on experience. Please read their blogs about what they learned. These student blogs are located on the side of the front page of this blog.
You may have heard about the headless rabbit our class hung from a tree. We found the rabbit without a head along a trail and decided to hang it up and watch it decay. We witnessed lots of fly activity initially then discovered the soft body tissue had sloughed off in the heavy rain. Maggots were found decomposing the body on the ground. This lead to many discussions by all grades on campus such as, forensic science, why is smells, what killed the rabbit, and recycling of nutrients to mention just a few.
Cutting away the chicken’s epithelial tissue.
Looking for the tendons.
Examining the muscle tissue
Only at The Pathfinder School could science be this up close and personal with nature!
We see a lot of fly activity
Maggots decomposing the flesh on the ground
Only the skeleton remained after the strong rain.
Not impressed with the smell but loved the maggots!