In ESLA Pre-Med, we go boldly beyond where most other anatomy classes dare. Rather than focusing our energy on memorizing the name of every nerve, bone, and blood vessel, we are always looking at the big picture of form and function – how does an animal’s body tell the story of its life?
In our most recent class, we dissected skates. A close relative of sharks, skates are some of the most ancient living animals on earth – when dinosaurs first appeared, they had already been around for 170 million years.
By opening up their gills and seeing the feathery insides, students reasoned that gills act “like a filter” for oxygen. We also got to see their two-chambered hearts (the lesson: less separation of oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood than in humans means less efficient breathing)…
…and even examine the contents of their stomachs for partially-digested food, giving us important clues about their diet!
Not only does dissection give us an intuitive understanding of how evolution works, it hones our scientific and ethical reasoning. By seeing the connections between living things, we gain a respect for the natural world that can’t be taught in a textbook.
The Episcopal School of Los Angeles 