Getting Down and Dirty With Deer Hearts

Senior Ella Landsteiner went elbows deep into a deer’s heart to learn about the anatomy and physiology within the heart. Ella was provided with all of the necessary: safety gear, a lab coat, medical gloves, and a mask. Along with a variety of different materials including a scalpel, scissors, tweezers, and a probe. “I think dissecting the deer’s heart was a great way to fully understand the work that takes place in the heart,” said Ella.

Students partnered up and grabbed a heart. The dissection was a two-day lab as it took lots of preparation and studying before diving in. The anatomy class first learned about the

heart through notes and online visuals but Karson Schmid said: “Taking notes helped me learn, however, I think actually dissecting a heart was more beneficial. I learned and got to experience a lot from it in the process”.

The NUHS anatomy class has been fortunate enough to dissect deer hearts for 7 years. “I think it is extremely valuable to experience what we’re learning about in real life,” said Mr. Nelson, the anatomy teacher at NUHS. Mr. Nelson was a great help to the students answering any questions and actually helping with the dissecting process itself.

All of the deer’s hearts that have been dissected have all been donated to the anatomy class for research. Many students tend to bring in hearts as it gets them a few extra credit points for the class.

The anatomy class offered at NUHS is a great way for students to slowly be introduced to the medical field and could potentially influence some students to choose the path of medicine for the future.