Biological Sciences Majors, Meet Herman Wilbur III
Who is Herman Wilbur III?
Herman Wilbur III is the fetal pig that my lab group is currently dissecting for Biological Discovery 2 lab. The dissections for Biological Discovery 2 take place towards the end of the semester when animals are focused on instead of plants.
Who gets to dissect fetal pigs?
Anyone that takes Biological Discovery 2 will have a chance to do these dissections. As any biological sciences major, you would be required to take Biological Discovery 1 and 2 unless you have some credits that transferred in, exempting you from these requirements. That does not mean that non-biological sciences majors are restricted from taking these classes. Most majors require science electives and if chemistry isn’t required for your major and you don’t care for it too much, bio 2 might be a good class to look into. It’s a fun class with an interesting lab component that consists of microscopy as well as dissections and field work.
The event:
For the past two weeks we have been dissecting fetal pigs in Bio 2 lab. In the first dissection, the major components of the pig were observed (major organs, veins, arteries, etc.) and this past week we got to dig a little deeper and dissect the heart, stomach, and measure the intestines. This was an interesting procedure, especially when the two boys that I was working with (Connor and Cam) found this dissection to be the most exciting thing in lab so far. The pure glee on their faces as we cut into the pig was a bit unnerving, but proved to be entertaining as we continued through the dissection. We were able to trace the flow of blood from the body through the heart and into the lungs, and even got to see it on a larger scale with the demonstration of a cow’s heart. It was really cool to be able to see the latex (which is injected into the veins and arteries for preservation) that served as blood going into all of the valves and chambers of the heart. The small intestine of our fetal pig was 270 cm long! Only in bio lab will you be able to explore the internal structures of organisms!
