cow eye dissection

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2005 : February : 9

cow eye dissection
By Stephanie

I am a 2nd grade teacher and have been dissecting cow eyes with my students for many years. This is a unit that is part of our district health called "Growing Healthy" After we study the eye and learn all the eye parts
and do many fun activities (all developmentally appropriate for 2nd graders) we dissect cow eyes. I do the cutting, all students are wearing gloves, and after I cut, they find the parts of the eyes that we have been learning about. They absolutely love it. If they don't want to touch the eye they don't have to but they all do. 'The learning that takes place during the unit is amazing.

The lens in a cow eye is so neat. They can take it out and I have them put it on newspaper and they can see the images get bigger. They can actually see that the pupil is not black but a clear hole. Many students remember this dissection as their favorite part of 2nd grade. If you didn't want to dissect you could crack an egg on the overhead projector and do some experiments to show how the egg is like an eye. Have fun!