The juniors in Mike Pistacchi’s honors biology classes dissected rats today in order to build upon their knowledge of anatomy and physiology.

During the dissection, students worked in duos or trios to identify the different organ systems that they had learned about, such as the circulatory system and the digestive system.

“I think dissections are a great way to get into the animal you’re working with and really get a sense of how biology works in the real world,” Nikhil Reddy (11) said.

Pistacchi hoped that the exercise would allow students to further understand the biological structures and functions in a body through a hands-on lab rather than in a visual activity.

“It’s a chance to see all of the organ systems that we’ve been looking at pictures of in person and see what they really look like,” he said. “It gives the students a real view of what organs look like and how they’re all attached to each other.”

Students had previously dissected pigs’ hearts and frogs, but the experiment with the rats gave students a more thorough and comprehensive perspective in which they could link the different body systems together.

“I liked today’s dissection with the rat the most because after learning about the different systems for the past few months, I finally got to observe how everything is connected,” Sachin Peddada (11) said. “My group also used its knowledge from the pig’s heart dissection to study the rat’s heart as well.”

Although there are no more dissections planned for the rest of the year, the students will be able to observe the cerebral structures of the brain during a demonstration taking place on their next long block period.