Sheep heart, ready for dissection.
This past summer, SoundBio Lab hosted a sheep heart dissection workshop for the first time. Led by two UW trained scientists, Asia Galarpe and Tucker Carlson, attendees were each given a heart to dissect.
Following the flow of blood, we explored the atriums, ventricles, and located the main aorta, coronary artery, and other vessels that carry blood to and from the lungs.
A highlight was cutting into the heart to locate the valves that open and close as the heart pumps blood through the four chambers. Participants found the chordae tendineae, otherwise known as ‘heart strings’ (they really do look like strings!), that connect the heart muscle to the valves.
The workshop in full swing.
We also learned the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest (hint: heart attacks may or may not lead to a sudden cardiac arrest when the heart stops beating).
Workshop attendees ranged in age from 12 years old to adults. Each participant was provided with their own heart on a wax tray, along with a scalpel (adults) or scissors (youth) and tweezers. Everyone wore protective lab coats, gloves and glasses to prevent splashes, as it turns out hearts are quite slippery! Overall, participants thoroughly enjoyed this hands-on workshop. SoundBio Lab has offered other dissection workshops in the past too. For more information on those, please check out a previous blog post.
Interested in more dissections? Do you know of a science expert who would like to teach this type of workshop? We’d love to hear from you! Drop us an email at: info (at) sound.bio
