We dissected a cow's eye a couple of weeks ago! It goes along with our Prairie Primer. We had read the part in the books when Mary goes blind, which is true. She went blind from having Scarlet Fever as a baby and it didn't affect her until years later. So we learned the different parts of the eye and how it works. It was very interesting. The kids were so grossed out for most of it they probably don't remember a whole lot of what they were suppose to be learning!
Notice how they don't look real thrilled about touching it...
The first cuts...
The meaty stuff around the eye is tougher than it looks. I had to help Zach...
Ok, I really did try to not take the whole thing over
Here's the front and the back of the eye. Zach is holding the front (the Anterior - the part that we can see when you're looking at someone) and Abigayle is holding the inside/back part of the eye (the Posterior - the part we can't see)
The Cornea was kind of tricky. It's a lot thicker than you might think and it took a couple of tries to cut deep enough to get it off.
Notice the little white marble looking thing on the plate. That is the cornea that we just cut off. Zach's getting ready to pop the lens out!
And here's the lens. If it wasn't cloudy, we would be able to see the words through it and they would be slightly magnified.
It looks to me like you were doing this in the garage-- not going to do it at the kitchen table? The closest thing we have done to this is dissecting worms. We had a group of other hs kids over and we did it right at my table. (I chose worms partly because they have no eyes to be staring up at me while they get split open.) Anyway, good for you for getting that done, it couldnt have been easy! -Mellanie (I forgot to log in first).
I was just about to navigate away from your blog when I took a closer look and realized who you are! This is too amazing to be just a coincidence... I wrote that last post and I was only clicking blogs at random. I think our sons were being penpals for a while. We met on HSL, where I haven't been in a long time. Your son wrote mine last, and my son has been upset that he can't find the letters, we lost your address. (My son owes yours an apology.) I am Backwoods mom on HSL, or at least I was. I started a blog here, at hsb/Mellanie. Please stop by. I would like to add you as a friend, if that's okay.
Posted by Anonymous 
Jun. 24, 2009 - Untitled Comment