December 1, 2020 Rat Dissection

Hello everyone! Today, I would like to write about an interesting experiment that second grade students have done in biology class here at ICT. Ever since the beginning of this school offering biology classes at Hakusanroku campus, I have been ordering the necessary equipment to eventually be able to do a rat dissection. After some time, we could finally realize this on November 19^th 2020! This marked the first time in this school’s history to do such an experiment.

The objectives of the experiment were twofold. First, to get students to familiarize themselves with the different dissection instruments and second, to observe the different mammal organs and organ systems that the students have studied in biology class with their own eyes.

The class began with an explanation of the objectives, the safety measures, the description of the dissection instruments and the description of the procedure. A lot of emphasis was put on the safety measures since students would be working with sharp instruments and live tissues and organs. After the explanations, I proceeded to do a demo dissection so that the students could see the flow of the dissection. Following that, the students carried out the dissection. I offered them to be in pairs if some were not comfortable doing the dissection alone, but most of them surprisingly wanted to do it alone and have one rat each.

It was nice to hear the positive comments and the positive reactions that students had during the experiment when they could see with their own eyes the theory that they have learned in class. After students had finished the main part of the dissection, they were required to call a teacher and identify specific organs from a list that was provided to them. Once they had successfully completed that task, they were free to explore more of the rat or they could finish up and clean up their space.

Overall, I was very pleased with how the class went and how the students approached the experiment with a sense of maturity and interest. We will be sure to repeat this experiment next year as well!

Jason de Tilly

*The pictures have been cropped.

※写真はトリミングしてあります。

皆さん、こんにちは！今日は生物の授業で２年生が行った刺激的な実験について書きたいと思います。白山麓キャンパスで生物の授業が誕生した日から、ねずみの解剖に必要な器具を注文して準備していました。そして令和2年11月19日、ようやく実現できました！金沢高専を含めた国際高専の歴史において初となる記念すべき解剖実験です。

解剖実験の目標は２つです。ひとつは様々な器具に使い慣れること、もうひとつは生物の授業で習った哺乳類の臓器や器官系を自分の目で観察することです。

はじめに、目標、安全事項、解剖器具と工程の解説をしました。切れ味が鋭い器具やねずみの組織と器官を取り扱うため、安全面への配慮が特に強調されました。説明のあとは解剖の流れを学生に見せるために見本を見せました。本番の前に、苦手な学生のためにペアになっても良いと伝えましたが、驚いたことにほとんどの学生はひとりで解剖したいと申し出たのです。

授業で学んだ内容を実際に目の当たりにしてポジティブな反応や発言をする学生の姿を見て嬉しくなりました。解剖でねずみを開いたあと、先生を呼んでリストに載った臓器をすべて識別する課題がありました。これに合格したあとはねずみの体内を自由に観察して、片付けて終了となりました。

興味を持ってひたむきに解剖に取り組む学生の姿勢がとても好印象で、とても良い実験になりました。来年も解剖実験が行えるように準備します！

ジェイソン・デ・ツィリー