Amador’s Anatomy Physiology classes are dissecting cats for the month of February to learn more about the muscle structures in the body and the digestive system as well.

“At first the idea of it really disgusted me, I’m not a big fan of dissections, and having to dissect a whole cat was definitely hard for me. However, our teacher thought it would be beneficial for us to learn about the muscles and digestive system in this way. After doing the dissection, I feel like I actually learned a lot and it helped me in learning the overall anatomy of the cat,” said Devika Subramaniam (‘23).

The class was split into teams to take a closer look at the cat’s overall anatomy. With the help of two teachers, the students were easily able to navigate through the dissection.

“The project mainly focused on the actual dissection of the cat. I felt as though our team had a really good connection, making the whole process that much more fun. Ms. Cochran and Ms. Acosta were also a really great help in the whole process. Overall I really just had a great time, minus the smell,” said Aishwarya Anburaja (‘24)

There were many utensils used to open the cat up and identify the muscles, but there were also tools that were off-limits.

“We used blunt probes and blunt scissors to get the fascia off the cat but we were strictly forbidden to use the sharp probe and scissors because the cat is so sensitive and its dermis and epidermis are so thin it made the whole process a bit tricky to cut and identify. Our group accidentally cut into the stomach in the beginning because we weren’t being careful,” said Joline Siu (‘23)

Students were granted a lot of freedom during the cat dissection process, one being picking the names of their cat.

“My favorite part of the dissection, at least one of them, was that we could name the cat. We got to pick our own names, making the cat feel more relative to us and I’m excited to use Britney (their cat’s name) for the digestive unit,” said Siu.