This week in Science #9

     This week in science we did some sugar honey ice tea! We first brain stormed the creatures that we were going to dissect. They were the mouse, the frog, a skate and a perch. Then we observed the two animals that we were willing to dissect. My group chose the skate and the perch. We drew dorsal and ventral views of the animal we were going to do. Later on in the week my group and I dissected the skate and we found many parts like the stomach, large intestine and liver. I was disgusted and fascinated at the time. But the skin of the skate is very thick and was thorny because of its spikes in certain ares like the tail. You can see this in the picture above.
     This week in science I learned weird things. I learned that the skate has very thick skin and if its a male it has claspers. I learned that frogs and mice are more like humans than the skate and perch. I learned that female perch produce hundreds of eggs in one laying (called caviar). I learned some organisms are harder to dissect because of their skin like the frogs skin is way thinner than the mouses because the mouse has a lot of fur which makes it harder to dissect. Lastly I learned that skates have a whole lot of water in them still after they are dead.
     Well my group dissected the skate and my "table mate" dissected the perch. These two animals are similar because both are harder to dissect. The perch does not have spikes or thorns on its body but the skate does for protection purposes. The perch has scales and fins the skate doesn't it has a smooth skin. The skate has a long tail with spikes to wave off predators. And lastly the skate has its mouth on the bottom but the perch has its mouth in the front.

This Week In Science #8

                                                             Above is the dorsal view

                                                              Below is the side view

  
     This week in science we did some pretty disgusting stuff. We dissected an earth worm, a craw fish, and a giant cricket. My group took pictures and drew pictures of the creatures we dissected, which was the craw fish. We saw the heart of the craw fish and the gills that were inside of the craw fish's tough armored skin. We also took dorsal and side photos of the fish before getting crazy with the dissecting. We also used scalpel and the scissor for the first time during a dissection with a creature.
     This week in science I learned how to dissect different species such as the earth worm, a cray fish and a giant cricket. I also learned how to hold and use the scalpel and scissor the correct and appropriate way. I learned that I like dissecting things. I didn't know cray fish had gills inside their of their bodies unlike fish, who have it outside their bodies. I learned that Angela likes to play with the disgusting earth worms. And lastly I learned the different views of the dissections. A couple are the proximal view, dorsal view and the ventral view.