Description:

Dissection! The critical lab skill that schools skip and parents hate hosting at home. This lab can be paired with any independent study or online course in high school biology or anatomy in order to gain significant hands-on experience to complete a lab science credit.

Students will investigate major organs and organ systems though a through a semester-long dissection study. Students will examine the major functions and features of a system one week and perform a related dissection the following week: circulatory system (cow heart), nervous system (sheep brain), excretory system (cow kidney), senses (cow eyeball), and musculoskeletal system (chicken wings and cow femur).

The class will cover lab safety, practice proper dissection techniques, and learn how to set up and maintain a lab journal with notes and drawings of organs and organisms. Students will also use microscopes to look at tissue samples throughout the semester. Students will have a pre-lab activity (video and/or packet) to complete each week as "admission" to the following session's dissection.

Topics in this Series: Organ Systems (Semester 1) and Organisms (Quarter 2), etc. Students continuing from first semester receive priority pre-registration for second semester.

Prerequisites: Students must have age/grade-level dexterity and fine motor skills for the detailed instrument work in this class.

Workload: Students should expect to spend 1 hour per week outside of class.

Assignments: All assignments will be posted on password-protected Canvas classroom management site. There, students access assignments, upload homework, take automated quizzes and tests, track grades, and message instructor and classmates. Students will have a mandatory pre-lab assignment that must be completed and will serve as the student's "ticket" into the lab session each week.

Assessments: Will not be given

Textbook/Materials: Students should purchase The Anatomy Coloring Book (ISBN-13 : 978-0321832016)

Lab/Supply Fee: A class fee of $50.00 is due payable to the instructor on the first day of class.

What to Bring: Students should bring a paper or a notebook, pen or pencil, and a set of colored pencils to class each week.

What to Wear: Students should not wear any loose, drapey clothing to lab. They should also come to class with long hair tied back and should wear closed toe shoes.

Credit: Homeschool families may wish to count this course as a component (partial) credit in a laboratory science for purposes of a high school transcript.