“It was pink and squishy”: What Happens When You Give 70 Students 15 Sheep Brains

“It was pink and squishy”: What Happens When You Give 70 Students 15 Sheep Brains

Several courses include the anatomy of the brain in their curriculum; however, it can sometimes be difficult for students to grasp the function of such a complex organ.  For the first time ever on November 5, Advanced Placement Biology, Health and Advanced Placement Psychology students teamed up and dissected sheep brains.

Stephanie Meadows, a Health and Physical Education Teacher; Chris Mauthe, an AP Psychology teacher; and Allyson McKowen, an AP Biology teacher organized the event.  McKowen ordered fifteen sheep brains from Carolina Biological Supply for the students to dissect, with the money from a grant from the Arlington County Physical Education Department.

Each class has different curriculum when it comes to the brain, but the hands on experience taught each student something new.  And although the curricula may be different for each class, the general subject is the same: the brain.

“The AP Psychology kids brought the information of human behavior, the AP Biology kids brought the actual anatomy and the animal kingdom type behavior and the Health kids have their new computers and were able to do […] an AP activity and were able to see what it was like to be in an AP classroom,” said Mauthe.

Interactive learning can concrete the concepts teachers teach in the classroom.  For example, sometimes it is hard to imagine a large mass of gray matter as the center of higher thinking, but that is what the cerebral cortex and frontal lobe do.

“It was fun because I learned about the brain last year [in AP Psychology], but I got to see the brain structures in person during the dissections” said senior Isabelle Wal. Wal is a former AP Psychology student and current AP Biology student.

Overall, students acted very positively to the brains.  A couple freshman were adamant about avoiding the brains, but most consider it a successful learning experience.

“From some of the [students] that I asked, they said they were really excited to physically be able to touch the brain, it is not like a foam brain or an online thing, it is an actual brain that they could manipulate,” said Mauthe.

“It was nice that there were gloves, because if I had had to touch [the brain] without gloves on I would have chopped my fingers off,” said Carolina Martyn, a senior and AP Biology student.

Mauthe and the other teachers hope to continue this learning experience into next year and the future.

“There is so much more that [AP Biology and AP Psychology students] do about the brain that it would be nice to have my kids see what more they do,” said Meadows.

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