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Stillborn piglet workshop 16 October 2014

Dissection Workshop – Stillborn Piglet
At Nambour State High School
Thursday, 16 October 2014 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (AEST)
Nambour, QLD

This workshop morning is aimed at secondary school teachers and lab techs and will focus on a stillborn piglet specimen which is suitable to use in teaching any of the body systems core units of the Australian National Curriculum. The workshop will include a hands on dissection as well as an introduction to anatomical colouring-in resources as teaching tools.

With most of the Uni’s closing or downscaling their animal breeding houses it has become very difficult to secure a good supply of rats for dissection. The sensible and ethical alternative is a stillborn piglet from Dissection Connection.

The session will be focused on giving teachers the knowledge and confidence to enrich their lessons, giving lab technicians the tools to assist and support their teaching colleagues with incorporating specimens like these into their lesson plans and, in the long run, engaging students more by enriching their learning.

Each participant will also receive a certificate of participation to include in their professional development dossier.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get your hands on our pound of flesh. I look forward to meeting you ‘in the flesh’ and hope we can deliver a workshop to remember.

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Top Tip: inject the heart vascular system with paint

bovine heart with paint injected into the vascular system
bovine heart with paint injected into the vascular system
bovine heart with paint injected into the vascular system

Here’s a top tip that I first was given by a very experienced biology teacher at Brisbane Grammar. You can inject the vascular system of a heart with paint to highlight the blood vessels.  I had a practice yesterday and found it much easier on this bovine heart than I ever have on a porcine heart.  I’m not very experienced with syringes and needles, though, and there were plenty of labbies in the porcine pluck workshop at ConQEST that did a great job of it.

My tips for success:

  • Water down the paint a bit to make it easier for the syringe and needle.
  • Use a brightly coloured paint.  Red and blue is tempting but yellow, orange and green show up much more clearly.
  • Allow a bit of air to flow out of the needle into the blood vessel ahead of the paint if you can.
  • Massage the paint along the finer vessels with your finger.
  • Try not to tell the lady at the craft shop what you really want to use the paint for.  She will just look thoroughly disgusted and keep one eye on you until you finally get out of her shop.

I’ve also been told you can let the paint dry and see the highlighted vessels by cutting across the muscle and looking for the paint.

It’s fun!  Give it a go!

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How to get free teacher PD from Fizzics Education

science teachers workshop from Dissection Connection

science teachers workshop from Dissection Connection

Teaching science can be a tough gig.  There seems to be no end to the cool experiment ideas on the internet that you can try in the classroom.  But you don’t always have time or the confidence to check it out first and there is nothing worse than a science lesson that falls flat because the internet lied to you.

What if you didn’t have to ‘squeeze science in’?  What if you knew how to make science part of every lesson?

Fizzics Education offers a free teacher PD workshop for schools that book school workshops.   This is not a powerpoint presentation; it’s a bunch of experiments demonstrated to your staff that have been classroom tested.
We can also arrange this via video conference if time does not allow us to present this on the day of your school visit.

Miss Vivi has seen the difference even a quick one hour workshop can make to a teacher that wasn’t sure where to start with a specimen.  Let Dissection Connection and Fizzics Education give you a set of skills that will make you the best teacher you can be when it comes to delivering science in and out of the classroom.

Pop over and have a look at all the gory bits on their website and while you are there check out the other FREE resources they have for teachers.

Fizzics Education also currently deliver in-person science workshops into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and also do Regional Visits.

Fizzics-Title-10-years

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No more rat dissections! The teacher and students loved Miss Piggy

female piglet reproductive system
superficial view of abdominal organs, abdominal cavity stillborn piglet at dissection connection
superficial view of abdominal organs, abdominal cavity stillborn piglet at dissection connection

Looks like it is the end of an era here at Chinchilla SHS. No more rat dissections!!!!!!!

The teacher and students loved Miss Piggy and we had other teachers coming in for a look. The Biology teacher declared it “Way Cool” and I am impressed with the lack of smell (unlike rats) and much easier to identify organs etc.

The teachers only concern was that we usually get pregnant rats but I feel we can show the reproductive systems better using uterus and testes specimens in conjunction with male and female piglets.

Thank you so much for the piglet I believe my teachers have seen the light and been converted. I know I have.

– Sheena Wolens, Chinchilla State High School