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Mr. Watt's Biology 2 Students Participate in Dissection Lab

January 08, 2021

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Prior to Christmas break, Mr. Watt's Biology 2 students had the opportunity to participate in dissecting a four-chambered heart and a fetal pig. One of the human body organs that is very similar to a pig’s is the heart. A pig heart and a human heart are similar in their size, structure, and function. Like a human heart, the pig heart has two atriums and two ventricles. It also has four valves and an aorta. For this reason, the class used a mature sow pig and a deer heart for the sake of comparison. 

There are several reasons that schools use fetal pigs to instruct students in anatomy:

• Pig anatomy and human anatomy are somewhat similar.
• Dissection is a hands-on way of learning anatomy. For many learners, this type of learning is better than textbook learning.
• Dissection allows students to see the body’s structures in three dimensions (unlike in a textbook) and how the organ systems are interconnected.
• Dissecting more than one fetal pig demonstrates variations within the animal body. No two fetal pigs (or any animal) will look exactly alike, and this helps students understand natural variations, and recognize anatomy even if it does not look exactly like the textbook.
• Fetal pigs are not bred for being dissected. They are the by-product of the pork industry and would be discarded if not used for dissection.