Students in Year 7 and 8 had the opportunity to get hands-on experience during after school Dissection Evenings hosted by the Brooke Weston Academy Science department.

Students dissected a variety of different organs which all have a very similar structure to human organs and included:

• A sheep heart - Exploring the structure of the heart including the different types of tissue found in the heart, the main blood vessels of the heart and the different chambers. It also helped students understand how blood moves around both the heart and the body in animals.
• A sheep eye - Exploring the internal and external structures of the eye which aids students in being able to identify the different parts of the eye and their function. Students were able to remove the lens and use this to magnify printed written text.
• A chicken foot - Students cut through the skin layer to reveal the tendons. They could then pull on the different tendons and see how it affects the foot. Pulling on the tendons causes the claws of the foot to move and pulling different tendons will cause slightly different movements. This showed students how tendons connect bones to muscle which allows us to move our skeletal system.

Students then observed Science teacher, Dan Hawksley, performing a rat dissection. A rat was used for the demonstration because its internal anatomy is very similar to a human and provided students with the opportunity to explore how the different organ systems are arranged and connected, looking in particular at the heart, lungs and digestive system.

Science teacher, Danielle Budgen, said, ‘We organised the evening to elicit pupil engagement in science, showing the real-life applications of what they learn in Science and a deeper understanding of animal anatomy. This also served as a fantastic opportunity for pupils to learn a new skill of how to dissect a specimen which isn’t offered by the KS3 curriculum.

‘The events were a huge success! The turnout was fantastic, we had over 150 Year 7 and 8 who wanted to attend and we also had some Sixth Form scientists who volunteered to help with the dissections. Following the event pupils were very excited and I have been asked lots of fantastic questions from pupils who attended the event regarding the anatomy of different animals.’

See a selection of photos taken during the dissection evenings here