Dissections: Honors Biology at St. Agnes

With the end of May rolling around the corner, St. Agnes has begun to wrap up its year – the juniors and seniors taking their APs and sophomores planning how to best set up their first year as upperclassmen. Concurrently, the freshman class of St. Agnes has begun to wrap up as well with their last unit tests, final exam review games, and group projects. But the students of Ms. Kalee Blackburn’s Honors Biology I class have not had this courtesy yet. When they finished their final unit test last week, instead of coming to their next class ready to play Kahoots and Gimkits, they showed up with extra T-shirts and purple, spiral-bound books in hand: Photo Manual & Dissection Guide of the Fetal Pig.

Since receiving their book lists last summer, these Honors Biology students have known about their pig dissections. Still, after ordering their textbooks, the better part of the class most likely pushed that thought to the back of their minds for more pressing matters – sports tryouts, school dances, tests – not giving the dissection a second thought. That is, until checking their weekly lesson plan, fondly known as a LAP (Learning Action Plan), to find “Pig Dissection: Bring textbook!” written in bold. Even with this warning, though, inhaling a whiff of formaldehyde instead of the faint smell of Expo Markers and various Sol de Janeiro scents must have been a somewhat rude awakening for Ms. Blackburn’s Honors Biology Block 1.

Ms. Kalee Blackburn and one of her many candles being put to good use after the pig dissection.

Surprised or not, the students jumped right in. The dissection was spread across four days: one for the muscles and bones, one for the oral and thoracic cavities, one for the abdominal cavities, and one for the veins and arteries. Of course, many overachievers disregarded this four-day plan and completed the dissection in a mere two days. During this time, the students worked in groups of two and three to try and identify 54 different parts of a fetal pig using their knowledge of anatomy, dissection manuals, and just a “little” bit of help from Ms. Blackburn. 

These next few days, the students will hopefully figure out the difference between the latissimus dorsi and the spinotrapezius in time for their practical exam over the pig while Ms. Blackburn attempts to wash out all aromatic remnants of the dissection with Bath and Body Works candles.