Last Monday, Nov. 11, Mrs. Lisa Moreno’s, Science, Zoology classes performed their third dissection. So far, the students have dissected sharks and frogs, and added pigeons to the mix in Nov. 11’s lab. By the end of the year, they will have dissected a shark, frog, pigeon and a pig fetus.

“Students are going to learn about [a bird’s] digestive system. [In other dissections] the students learned about the digestive system and urogenital system, but the bird’s digestive system is unique,” said Mrs. Moreno.

The students first had to cut through the tough muscle on the stomach, called the pectoral muscle, in order to see the other organs.

“This was the messiest dissection [I’ve done so far]. Getting through the pectoral muscle was the hardest part of the dissection. It was also hard because the pigeon was so small,” Emily Stutler (11) said.

Students also got to cut open the gizzard, the second digestion chamber, that contains things like rocks to grind up food for digestion. The first chamber is called the proventriculus, and these two together are the equivalent of a bird’s stomach. They also got to observe the bird’s respiratory system.

“The heart was the coolest thing I saw in the bird. It was the shape and size of a strawberry which is impressive for a bird,” Damian Patitsas (11) said.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Jacob Graziani (11) examines his pigeon before dissection. Students were instructed to look at the scales on the pigeon’s feet.