Our first 'Parent and Daughter Dissection Club' sessions - The Heart and Fish Gills

Alice

On Friday 23rd November I attended a parent and daughter - dissection session with my mum. After a brief talk on what we would be looking for, we were presented with our specimen for the day - an enormous salmon head. Although we had some slips along the way, we managed to cut the majority of the fish’s gills out intact and then placed them in a beaker of water where they fanned out, showing their delicate filaments. My mum and I saw the entire gill structure, including the gill rakers and the gill arch. We had just removed the eyes when it was the end of the session - the time had gone so quickly. It was an amazing hour and both my mum and I enjoyed it immensely.

Emmie

On Friday 23rd of November Mr Isaacs held the second session of the first parent-daughter dissections and it was definitely something I thoroughly enjoyed. It was so interesting being able to delve deep into the biology of a fish’s head! We started with a brief introduction about the fish head we would be dissecting, and how we could find the gills. What my dad and me found very interesting was that the gills are not just the flap-like scales on the outside, but are layers of comb-like filaments, that expand when taking in oxygen from water. When we eventually managed to cut out the gills, we put them in a beaker of water and watched the filaments expand from the water intake, it was very intriguing! Afterwards most people took out the fish’s eye trying to find the clear circle that was the lens. It was messy, but in incredibly good fun. My dad and I certainly learnt lots about fish and dissection as a whole and I would really love another one of these sessions!