Friday, October 5, 2012

Heart to Heart Dissection

One of the benefits of living in Alaska is the abundant wildlife. Moose and caribou are common in the Interior, and both supply a significant portion of the protein consumed by many Alaskan families. This fall, we were fortunate to have two separate donations of ungulate organs as an aide to our human anatomy unit--two moose hearts, a caribou heart, and a moose kidney.

Last week, Mr. Mitchell dissected a moose heart and the kidney in front of the class to begin the anatomy unit. The goal was to give students some direct experience with the heart as a model for our study of the circulatory system. (See last week's post for some pictures.) This week, Mr. Mitchell's daughter Amy, a teacher candidate at UAF, dissected a second moose heart and a caribou heart while the students asked questions and documented the process with iPads and their own cameras.

Once the hearts were dissected, the students used Drawing box to create circulatory system diagrams and Keynote to collect the images (along with images they found online) to create reports on the circulatory system.

There were several iPads involved in the dissection. Ms. Mitchell used the excellent Visual Body app to project interactive 3D views of the circulatory system and the heart as an introduction. Her notes were kept on a second iPad at her station. A third iPad was used to project the dissection onto the class screen via the Apple TV, and a fourth streamed the event to a class at another school using FaceTime. Students also used iPads and their own devices to take videos or still shots, some of which may their way into their Keynote presentations.

We'll try to post a few of the Keynote reports at a later date.

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