CHC Students Explore ODU’s Cadaver Lab

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On Monday, April 8th, Ms. Pinkin took about 25 of her students to the Cadaver Lab at Old Dominion University. Ms. Pinkin teaches Anatomy and Human Physiology at Cape Henry Collegiate. Throughout the year, students have been learning about the bones and muscles of the body. The trip was a real eye-opener for some students. For example, Nicole Rychagov (‘19) said, “It was fascinating seeing how the material we learned about a week ago, actually applied in real life to the human body.”

The field trip consisted of lunch and then a trip into the Cadaver Lab. Inside the lab, there were ten bodies, with a mixture of men and women. The cadavers were from people who had donated their bodies to science before they died. During our tour, there were anatomy students in the classroom completing a dissection of the body and the Cape Henry students were able to watch the dissection and ask questions. The students were able to hold things like a brain, a heart, a lung, or a liver. Tucker Bruner (‘19) was asked what his favorite part about the Cadaver Lab field trip was and he responded, “I enjoyed when the Old Dominion students pulled on the flexors in the forearm and the fingers moved. That really visualized the fact how each body part has a certain function.”

At one point, the Old Dominion students were cutting off the top of a skull with a bone saw to remove the brain. These students had to use tremendous precision to make sure they cut through the skull but didn’t cut the brain at all. The Cadaver Lab class at Old Dominion University is a senior level class and is an elective for them. All of the students in the lab that day expressed that if the Cape Henry students were to go to Old Dominion University, then they should take this class because it is strictly hands-on in the lab and a cool environment to work in.

Wlad Gassant (‘19) was asked if other people should take this field trip to the Cadaver Lab, and he said, “If anyone has the chance to go to take this trip in the future, they should take it because it’s really interesting to see how the real body differs from the models we look at in class, especially the lungs.” In the lab, there were smoker’s lungs and normal lungs being compared. The smoker’s lungs were smaller and black compared to the normal lungs which were pink and larger.

This field trip is like no other that Cape Henry has to offer, going into a lab and seeing dead bodies is only meant for certain people. It is good to go see a cadaver lab before you study anatomy in college and get to find out that you can’t stand blood and have to change majors. Anatomy and Physiology with Ms. Pinkin teaches you about the human body, which is beneficial, especially if you play sports.