Curricular Response

Throughout this Animal unit I have learned a multitude of new things about the life that lives around me everyday, and a large chunk of that learning was through the dissections of various animals. Our first dissection was simple, all we had to do was dissect a common earthworm. From that point on, our dissections only got harder and the animals got more and more complex. Earthworms are very simple creatures compared to our last dissection which was a shrimp. Earthworms had simple digestive and organ systems but shrimp and squid had much more complex organ systems and a more advanced digestive tract. As the unit went on, the animals got more and more complex. Most of the animals we looked at had closed (or pressurized) circulatory systems but the less advanced organisms had open circulatory systems. Mr. Asano was able to teach the locations and functions of various parts in a fun and memorable way throughout the dissections. It didn’t feel like I was doing a serious dissection, I was just having a good time with my peers.

Core Competency Self Assessment

Every dissection that we did was enjoyable and I’m proud of every one of them but there is one in particular that I enjoyed. The lab that I thought was the most enjoyable and the most informative would definitely be the squid lab. I was very clean with my cuts on the mantle of the squid and the part that I enjoyed the most was taking the pen out, stabbing the ink sac and writing my initials. A challenge I faced was doing the lab all by myself, I hadn’t done one by myself yet this semester, so this was a brand new experience for me. I solved any problems I had by asking questions to Mr. Asano or any of my other peers, which helped me through the process of the dissections. Thankfully my class was very helpful and I was able to achieve good marks on every dissection we conducted.