Start teaching high school standards, of course!
Our students have a choice between two different high schools in our district, and they won't all necessarily go straight into the same class in the 9th grade. Some may end up in Biology, while others may end up in an intro or general science class. So I had to decide which skills would serve them all.
I figured Greek & Latin root words and anatomical position vocabulary would be the most useful basic skills for them. We already cover Greek & Latin root words throughout middle school, so I decided they might not be very engaged in what would just seem like end-of-the-year review, so I narrowed my focus to just the anatomy vocabulary.
I made a PowerPoint and guided notes outline to introduce the topic. We practiced labeling a few diagrams, and the unit culminated in an autopsy...a pickle autopsy.
Now, I could have done an actual dissection (frog, etc.) except for these caveats:
- It's the end of the school year, so funds are a little low for ordering a bunch of preserved specimens.
- It's the end of the school year, and last minute orders might not arrive in time.
- I have some dissection tools, but not scalpels, which could be necessary for many specimens.
- I'm not comfortable introducing scalpels to my students at this point.
- I don't want to steal the thunder of a high school biology teacher who is looking forward to doing students' first "real" dissection with them. High school teachers are better equipped than I am. I need to leave it to them.
Hence, pickles. It's the perfect way to review anatomical position vocabulary and introduce dissection skills without dissecting an actual preserved specimen.
Here's the basic setup:
Each team got a dissection tray, plastic knife, tweezers, pick, hand lens (not shown), dropper, Petri dish, and a "victim" (pickle). Each victim had its own "punny" toe tag with identifying information. Some of the victims had the same last name so different student teams could confer to decide if they were related or not.
I made a very basic reference sheet for each table.
One station was a "Toxicology Lab" where students would get a sample of their victim's body fluid (pickle juice) and test it with red cabbage indicator to check pH. Some of the victims had been "poisoned" (soaked in baking soda solution), so they would get an alkaline result. I had a pH scale and a few samples already set up. My 8th graders have learned about pH, but it was in 7th grade, so it had been a while.
I added a little food coloring to the body fluid samples because the "poisoned" samples were a little lighter in color, and I didn't want it to be obvious that there was a difference. (Food coloring shouldn't affect the results much.)
I had a few pre-made samples set out in a chem plate so my students would know what to look for.
Here are my very hilarious toe tags. I don't know if my students "got" it. I didn't see any of them roll their eyes. 🙃 Vinnie Gar is perhaps my favorite.
Here, the students are dissecting. They recorded their observations on a lab sheet.
It wasn't obvious at first, but every victim had a variety of wounds. They had all been cut with a knife and stabbed with toothpicks (I left pieces of them embedded). Some had tiny balls of aluminum foil that I had inserted by poking them into the pickle with a toothpick. A couple of them had a gherkin inside (baby pickles!). A few had even been poisoned (the baking soda solution I mentioned above). Students had to draw and label dorsal and ventral wounds and describe each wound using superior/inferior, proximal/distal, medial/lateral, etc.
This was one of my favorite labs we have ever done. I'm so glad we had a chance to do it.
I'd like to share it with you, as well!
This is based off a file from The Forensic Teacher Magazine. This is the original. I simplified and shortened it a little for my middle schoolers. You can access all of my anatomical position vocabulary and pickle autopsy files here.
Your lab/classroom is going to smell like pickles afterward, but that's a small price to pay for such an engaging activity.
