Curricular Response

Before starting dissections I had to look at notes and photos to try and understand the different parts of an animal and it was more complicated since we had to interpret it in a different way. When we started doing dissections it was much easier, this was because we got to see it up in person and got to physically touch the animals and got to experience it first hand. I especially enjoyed this lab because every student got to dissect their own shrimp and we all did it as a class step by step. We got to remove each piece of the shrimp and got to see the diagram come to “life”. If you look in the picture above you can remove each swimmeret, walking leg, maxillipeds, and cheliped from the shrimp. We paired them together and even removed the exoskeleton of the shrimp and tried to recreate the shrimps body without the meat. After we even got to devein the shrimp and got to see its digestive tract. It was a really informative and interesting lab, and I really enjoyed being able to get a much closer look on the shrimp and all the parts of its body.

Core Competency Self Assessment

1. Yes, I think it is very important to celebrate our accomplishments. If I have worked hard and am satisfied with the result I think a bit of appreciation is well deserved. I am the most proud of the lab I have previously mentioned which is the shrimp lab. Unfortunately I didn’t get to dissect the squid but if I did i would’ve chosen that. In this lab we had to actually grab the squid and feel all its different parts unlike our other labs. For example the earthworm lab we did not actually touch and of the worm when we dissected it. I was really happy that I got through this lab even though it was quite disgusting at times.
2. I think actually getting very up close with the shrimp was a bit difficult at first as there were many things to think about. While doing the dissection we had to make sure we were counting the different appendages and making sure we weren’t missing any or counting wrong. I also accidentally cut too deep when trying to separate the carapace from the abdominal section, leading to the heart pouring out. Luckily we had many extra shrimp so I got to try again.
3. To overcome these challenges I just had to think about the positives, like how this would help me get a much better understanding of the anatomy of a shrimp and the phylum arthropod. Also that the shrimps would be cooked up and be eaten after carefully removing vein and digestive tract.