Heart Dissection

We love science Fridays! We looked forward to today's class because we were going to observe and participate in a dissection of a heart, probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
A view from the side of a cow's heart.

View from the top.

To determine the correct anatomical position of the heart, we passed it around for each one to squeeze, poke, and prod the tough walls of the ventricles. Knowing that the left ventricle had the thicker walls, we could then determine which side was the the front.

Here, Grace is putting her finger through the mitral valve, and as we looked down into the left atrium, we could see the opening where the pulmonary vein empties into it.

Then, Mr. D. cut open the heart vertically to expose more detail. On this shot, you can see: 1) the arteries and veins around the outside of the heart; 2) the thickness of the heart muscle, especially in the ventricles; and 3) the opening of the aorta.

Here, you get a better glimpse of the valves. Mr. D has his right thumb in the aorta and his left finger in the superior vena cava.

Megan, Moriah, and Grace get an upclose look.

Here, you can see the difference in the thickness of the walls of the right and left ventricles. The left ventricles are on the outside of each half section of the heart.

The pig's heart is about the size of a human heart (much smaller than the cow's heart).

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well. ~~ Psalm 139:13-14

~Wee