Rats and sheep brains and cow eyes, oh my!

In Biology class, all students are required to dissect animals including worms, frogs, and pigs. Some students find this to be a disgusting and torturous experience while others can’t get enough. Many of these students who are interested in biology join the the Medical Club where they are taking dissections to the next level by dissecting pregnant rats, sheep’s brains, and cow eyes – not for a grade but just for the fun of it.

The club was started by senior Will Duda, and the teacher leader and Biology teacher, Ms. Jennifer Roushar. It started as a medical speaker-based club, where specialists in various areas of the medical field come to talk about their careers. Senior Mimi Burns, a Medical Club leader, describes the Medical Club as a place for those who are interested in a career in medicine and want to learn more about what careers they can consider. “It draws from students with a common interest in learning about professions in the medical field,” Burns said.

Medical club is in its second year at BSM, and is quickly gaining interest. It is now bigger than ever before, with a full capacity of 58 students and a waiting list to get in the club. “I think a lot of people heard how cool it was last year because of the many opportunities you get to do in medical club. [This year] it’s a lot more well known, and we have a lot more opportunities for people to get out there and learn more about the medical world by doing more hands on stuff like dissections and field trips instead of just listening to people talk, which sets aside another concentration of what people would like to do in the future,” Burns said.

This year, the club plans to try different events besides speakers to make it more fun for the members. Ms. Roushar, Biology and Chemistry teacher, used a combination of student interest her own summer dissection experiences to choose which animals for the club to use. She wanted to incorporate parts of animals that get overlooked in the short amount of time spent on anatomy in the classroom. “This summer I was at a training where we did dissections of cow eyes, human eyes, and sheep brains. I chose pregnant rats, sheep brains and cow eyes for Medical club because students in Biology don’t get to look at brains and eyes with the fetal pigs, and AP Biology students’ favorite part of AP bio is doing pregnant cats,” said Roushar.

Before the dissections on November 5th and 6th, the students will watch a video on how to dissect the animals before identifying the anatomy in small groups. This club gives students the opportunity to learn more about careers in biology in an interactive way.