BLOOD-- The River of Life!!

What is in blood? What do our blood cells do? How much blood do we have? These are all questions we will attempt to answer in this Unit!! We've made some creative and colorful blood books that depict the formed elements in blood and we've even pricked our fingers to see what type of blood we have. I'm amazed we had no one faint in class that day!! Next up will be the heart and all of it's structures. We'll look at how it acts as a pump and where all this blood goes once it leaves the heart. We have sheep hearts to dissect and arteries and veins to look at in the microscope to help us learn a little bit more about our cardiovascular system.

Reproductive System

My favorite unit to teach!!! It's amazing how attentive these students have finally become! We are finishing up the male reproductive structures and our pig testicle dissection. After we study the female structures we will look at the development of the fertilized egg into an embryo and fetus. Finally we will end with studying the stages of birth and watch a live birth and Cesarean section. My hope is that the students will come away from this unit with an appreciation of the complexity of their own bodies and the miraculous process of human develpment.

"My what big eyes you have" said the big bad anatomy teacher!!! We have had fun this past month learning the structures of the eye and how they work. The students enjoyed dissecting a sheep eye and now they are particpating in a series of 10 lab stations that cover how the eyes help us see and how sometimes they can play tricks on us. The favorite lab station has been the inverted glasses. Many of the students have had problems just getting a drink of water or catching a ball!! After the eye we are on to the structures of the ear and hearing-- what's that you say????

Cranial Nerves and Brain Diseases!

Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet AH!! The class did a great job memorizing all 12 cranial nerves, their functions, and whether they were sensory, motor, or both. The Hollywood Squares competition between the boys and girls + Tyrel turned into a cats game but I think everyone found it to be a good review! We are now on to our Brain Disease Powerpoints. We will be presenting these in front of the class starting next Wed. Feb. 10th. I am looking forward to seeing what the students can create! Remember I am grading you on a dazzling introduction as well as how you keep your fellow student's attention during your presentation.

The end of the semester is coming up soon!! We are just finishing up Chapter 7 that deals with the nervous system. We've learned about the organization of the nervous system, neuron anatomy, and how messages are sent throughout the body. We've also looked at the structures in the brain and what their functions are. The sheep brain dissection was a success once we learned how to cut through that "tough mother"! The final exam will be next Wednesday January 20th. There will be approximately 90 questions on the scan tron and 11 or 12 questions on the essay section. It is a cumulative exam, meaning it will cover everything since the start of the class in August! Anatomy terms, directions, tissues, skin, membranes, bones, muscles, and the nervous system. Whew! We have learned alot!! The test counts as 10% of your final grade so spend some quality time reviewing for this test. Don't wait until the night before! I handed out a purple review sheet. Use that to help you study.

Nervous System!

So far in this class we've looked at our skin (integumentary system), bones, and muscles. Now we need to look at what controls these systems and allows our body to communicate with it's different parts. We will first start off with the central nervous system and look at the different parts of the brain. We'll dissect some sheep brains and compare structures. Then we'll also test our reflexes and learn the different parts of a reflex arc. That should get us through to mid January and semester finals. The final exam in this class is a cummulative exam--- meaning everything we've learned since August is fair game for the test!!!

Muscles!

We are now moving on to muscles: what are the different types of muscles; what are the functions of muscles; what are the names of different muscles; how do muscles contract? These are just some of the questions we will tackle in this unit. As usual, we will be having quizzes along the way to help you memorize the different skeletal muscles and their movements. By the end of this unit we should have a greater appreciation for all those sore muscles from weight training or basketball/wrestiling practice and even be able to name them!