Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Eye's Have It




The joys of homeschooling--or, should I say, the good, the bad, and the ugly...this time it was a combination. We got to dissect an eye, ewwwww! My youngest daughter had been begging me for a year or more get a lamb eye for her, so when I ordered some science items the other day, we got an eye, not a lamb, but a cow. Here it is in all it's gory detail, and if you want to know more, you can read about it here.


Shall we get started?!

First you have to cut all the tissue away...

Love that formaldehyde smell...

There now, it's nice and clean. That stemlike thing on the back is the optic nerve.

This is the cornea. It's quite tough. Stronger than I thought, but am so glad!
Sorry for the blur, my son was taking the pictures (he's not used to my camera yet).

Here's the front half...lens and iris, looking at it from the inside.
Now for the back, this is the retina. It's just a tissue held in place by the
vitreous humor, a gel like substance inside the eye that holds the eye in shape.
The retina is attached to the eye by the optic nerve which is where your blind spot is.

"Eye see you!"
This is getting a little cheesy.

This is the lens. It's different that we thought it would be.
It's kind of like a mancala piece, and is layered like an onion.

Mmm...tasty.

Here's the back with the retina taken off. Animal eyes have the iridescent
shine to them so that they can see at night. That's what makes them
glow in the headlights, but it also distorts their daytime vision.

Here's the happy girl who started this whole thing...

What we didn't show you was her throw up pail...she used it about five times!

Now, how about some breakfast...

6 comments:

Maine Mom said...

You are one awesome homeschooling Mom to do this project!

Elizabeth said...

Um, not a picture I expected to see when I opened your blogspot. And then they kept going and going and going. It may be a while before I return to this page. Uh, could you pass me the barf bucket please. Thanks.

PJ said...

"My youngest daughter had been begging me for a year or more get a lamb eye for her"

Does it get any funnier than that, folks?

You get the "Grossest post ever award" It rocks! I can't wait to show the girls.

The Practicalist said...

Ewwww...

yet, oddly captivating.

Clarissa said...

When I was in Second grade we got to split into groups and each group got to take turns with the teacher and disect a cow's eye. Ours wasn't that big, they had done most of the gross stuff before hand. My group was the only group to have the eyebrow and lashes still on it! It was soooooo cooool! Way to go Mindy!

1/2 a Dozen said...

I remember when Teej did that at school ... he loved telling me (over and over and over) that it blinked when he touched the back! Thanks for helping me relive that Min.