Cool or gross? Senior anatomy students dissect minks
photo by Gabby Bingaman
Payton Cloe helps Audrey Wise dissect a mink. Students have dissected minks for almost two months.
Over the past month, Anatomy and Physiology students have done their annual mink dissection. Science teacher, Payton Cloe and, senior, Ellen Jackson at Meridian have two different opinions about direction.
“As a student, I remember my first dissection being in 7th-grade science with Mr. Luzader,” Cloe said. “We did a frog, earthworm, and a perch […]. I like this as a segway into college-level Anatomy where most will work with real human cadavers.”
Dissection disgusted students but kept attention and interest.
“It is very difficult mostly because of the smell, but Mr. Cloe helps us with any questions we have,” Jackson said. “We learn about the muscles in the mink and then compare them to human muscles so we actually learn a lot.”
“I like this as a segway into college-level Anatomy where most will work with real human cadavers.””
— Cloe
“As much as I don’t particularly enjoy dissections, I do think they are important in science classes,” Jackson said. “I think it may not particularly help me, because I don’t plan to do any nursing programs. I do think it might help a lot of my peers in the future.”
Loading ...Some people struggle to handle dissection. Even if Cloe never had a student who refused to dissect, incidents can sometimes happen. In previous years, Cloe assigned one of his students a cat to dissect, he knew the student had a cat who looked similar at home. So when Cloe pulled the skin off the cat, the student passed out.
Minks, purchased from Nasco Science Supply Co. out of Wisconsin, are injected with dye for students to dissect.
“When it is time, they simply get an injection and go to sleep,” Cloe said. “That would be no different than a veterinarian putting a family pet to sleep.”
