On December 11, Mrs. Newman, a human anatomy teacher at Anaheim High School, held a dissection after school.

Most people would think cutting a rat open is disgusting, but not Mrs. Newman’s students. They enjoy obtaining experience from these dissections. “It’s something fun and interesting to compare their bodies to ours,” says Jazmin Rios, a junior at AHS. She has attended previous dissections and will continue to come because it’s something she enjoys to do.  Students say it allows them to appreciate how complex an organism truly is.

“A lot of people want to go into fields like a surgeon and this is a good experience,” states Rosie Ramirez (senior). When Mrs. Newman inquired about the possibility of her students pursuing a career in the medical field in the future, more than half of the students in each class raised their hands. For example, Rogelio Garcia (junior), who wants to be a neurosurgeon in the future. He takes these dissections as a way to “steady his hands,” and it’s the closest thing he can get to a real experience for the time being.

Dissections allow students to engage in a different way compared to just reading from the textbook or hearing a teacher talk. Throughout the school year, Mrs. Newman is hoping to offer at least one dissection a month, taking in consideration student interest. So far students have dissected insects, a frog and the most recent one a rat. In the future, available dissections will be for a snake and a rabbit, to allow comparison between mammals and reptiles.