Curricular Response
Throughout the animal unit within my life-science eleven class, we had the opportunity to dissect a various number of animals. My two favourite dissections were the squid dissection and the mussel dissection, which are pictured above. Although my teacher provided the class with diagrams of each animal, seeing them up close and in real life, allowed me to improve my understanding of each body system. An example would be the squid lab, there were so many different body parts that I had not heard of before, and I was nervous going into the dissection. Once we arrived in the superlab and I had my squid in front of me, I was able to look at the provided diagram and figure out where each part was. My teacher also went through each body part, pointing to where they were. I am nearly certain that if we did not go over that, I would have been confused as to where each part is, what it looks like, and the function of each. When I was dissecting the mussel, I opened it with a razor blade and studied the parts. Seeing all of the parts in real life helped me to memorize where the parts were, which is important to know for my upcoming animal exam. Within the animal unit in my life-science eleven class, using the dissections to my advantage furthered my understanding and helped me to learn each part of the different animal body systems.
Core Competency Self-Assessment
The dissection I am most proud of is by far the squid lab; and not only because we made calamari with it. I believe it is important to celebrate your accomplishments, it is a great way to award yourself after doing something challenging. I was nervous going into the squid lab, as it is the biggest animal we have dissected within this course. There were many hard cuts that I had to be precise with, or else I would have messed up my entire dissection. I am proud to say I completed everything successfully, and in order to celebrate the class’s accomplishments, we made calamari with the squids that we dissected. After a long lab, eating calamari with the squid that we dissected was the perfect way to celebrate. As seen in the photo to the right, my final product can be seen, which I am very proud of.
Throughout the various animal labs, I faced physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges. A physical challenge that I face in almost every dissection lab was my shaky hands. It was hard to make precise cuts when my hands were shaking. In order to overcome this challenge, I went slow and took my time. I eventually made those precise cuts, although I fell behind the class. I really wanted to make sure that all of my cuts were perfect, and by taking my time I did just that. An intellectual challenge I had was in the mussel dissection lab. I was confused as to where all of the body parts were. In order to overcome this challenge, I had to look at multiple diagrams and ask my partners for help. Eventually, I identified all of the parts, but it took me some time. An emotional challenge I had was during my worm lab. We got to play with the worms one day, and then the next day they were dead and we had to dissect them. It was hard for me to dissect them, as I was sad that they were dead. Emotionally it was hard to cut into them with a razor blade, as I had previously named them. I overcame this emotional roadblock by realizing that in order to get a good mark, I would need to dissect the worms. I also realized that they were already dead, so even if I were to dissect them, it wouldn’t matter, as they were already dead.