"The coolest thing I have done in high school!"

...Was heard in my classroom this week. As a class, we are examining the cardiovascular system; which just so happens to concide with butchering and hunting seasons here in the midwest.
I decided to take FULL advatage of this, knowing that my students all live on farms or hunt, I offered extra credit for bringing in organs. First up was a set of heart and lungs from a slaughtered pig. The students LOVED (well for the most part) holding the heart and putting their fingers down the vessels to feel around the ventricles.
We also got 2 Deer hearts from the weekend, both had arrow punctures in the heart where the fatal blow was delivered. Again, the students could not believe that I let them dig around in the organs and hold the hearts. I love the real life application as a teacher. Helping students make personal applications is critical to my subject matter. I kept remembering to take pictures AFTER I put gloves on and was holding the hearts, so it did me no good, until I remembered that my students all had phones! Big thanks to them for pictures.