Have you ever looked at a cow and thought about how big that thing is? Well, Mr. Nelson’s Anatomy and Physiology students got up close and personal with a huge set of cow lungs and found out just how much bigger a cow is than a human on the inside.

This past week, the students learned about the respiratory system. They learned about the different parts of the lungs as well as their functions. The purpose of a dissection is to show the students a real-life look at what they’ve learned about. The dissection took place in the metals shop for the sake of space.

Mr. Nelson guided them through the process starting with the trachea (throat) and working his way down to the alveoli (tiny air sacs in the lungs). Every few minutes, he told the class to look more closely at and feel certain parts of the lungs. He told students to “push and shove” to get a better view of the lungs because college professors will move on quickly whether they get to see or not. At the end of the dissection, he used an air compressor to pump the lungs full of air and the students got to see just how much bigger a cow is and how much more air a cow can hold than a human.

After the dissection, Mr. Nelson let the class loose to look at what they wanted to. The students got to use scalpels and scissors to open up the lungs. Senior Ella Ahrens said, “It was squishy.”