Eye To Eye With Bovine Anatomy

By Tanjua Damon

Having a hands-on perspective in science was a reality for an eighth grade science class at the middle school with students dissecting cow’s eyes to better understand the central nervous system and special senses.

Eighth grade science teacher John Girard had his students compare and contrast a cow’s eye with a human eye as well as look at the inside of the animal’s eye to see the parts of it.

“It’s hands-on. They learn by doing,” he said. “They use all their senses to learn what they see in front of them.”

Some students found the lab experience quite interesting while others thought it was gross, but educational.

“It’s sad but interesting at the same time,” Jordan Liker said. “I don’t really like dissecting anything.”

When simply looking at the cow’s eye, students found it to be much larger than a human eye. They also noticed that cow eye did not have the white surrounding the eye and also the cow eye was not as colorful as a human one.

As Katelyn Bolmer began dissecting the eye, she noticed that the outside was really tough, but the inside was moist and soft. She did not mind looking at the eye and dissecting it because of the educational lesson she was receiving.

Andy Defriesse and Dylan DeSimone partnered for the science lab. Both thought the project was educational but shared different views about the overall lab.

“I think this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done at school,” Dylan said. “We’re actually moving around.”

Andy thought it was interesting to see the parts of the eye up close, but felt it was a bit gross.

“It’s disgusting, but amusing and sort of exciting,” Andy said. “I thought there would be more things in it, but less hollow.”

Cow’s eyes have some similar parts to those of a human like the lens, cornea, and pupil, but the animal eye does not have as much color. The shape of the animal’s eye also can indicate whether the animal was near or farsighted. If the shape of the eyeball is shortened then the cow is farsighted. If the shape of the eyeball is long then the cow is nearsighted.

“It smelled funny and it was gross,” Jason Grauer said before discussing what similarities the eye had to those of humans. “They had a lens and most of the same stuff except it was much bigger. I was kind of surprised [by the size]. I thought it would look like a human eye.”

Daniel Furphy did not like the dissecting part, but knew the lab had educational value.

“I thought it was kind of sickening, but there was something to learn from it,” Daniel said. “It’s a good way to learn all the parts of the eye. “[I liked] the lens because it was one solid piece.”

Many of the squeamish students felt better about the assignment once they began investigating the inside of the cow’s eye. Being able to see what the inside was like amazed many of them.