Biology at ISCAT is not for the faint-hearted! Today in Year 10, students compared a sheep’s heart to the human heart by dissecting the sheep’s heart and then comparing this to the human heart from the various models of the latter found around the lab. The local butcher in La Garriga, Can Torrents, were happy to supply us with a number of sheep’s hearts. In pairs, students dissected each heart to be able to identify and compare the size, shape and tissue of the heart and lungs – not just to observe anatomy but to associate structure with function.
This type of activity reflects perfectly the value of a concept-driven curriculum, where the students can use hands-on experiments to draw their own conclusions and thus not simply learn ‘facts’, as you would from a textbook based traditional lesson, but involve themselves fully in assimilating the concepts at a deeper level.
As you can see, all our young learners are fully engaged in the task and while some balked a little at the outset, we are sure that all not only learned a lot today, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience!