Cow Eyeball Dissection - Meghan's View

On Wednesday, May 16, 2007, Forty Grade 8 students each performed a cow eyeball dissection that took place after school. Since my career goal in life is to pursue the path of ophthalmology, I have found the activity phenomenal. The atmosphere in the room was very energetic as we all anxiously awaited for our own eyeball to work on. Some students – mostly people from my table – tried their best not to vomit or pass out as they examined their eyeball.

To start things off, we all prepared ourselves by putting on our latex gloves and got right to work. First, we began by cutting away the fat that surrounded the eyeball. This was very time consuming, but in the end, if you had something that looked like a lollipop, it was done perfectly. Once all of our eyeballs were bare, we began the dissection. Second, we made a small 1-2 cm incision at the top of the eyeball with our scalpel. Third, we took our scissors and began cutting the eyeball until they were in two halves.

Now, our adventure begins! After the dissection, there were various different parts that you can see and feel. We were able to discover where the vitreous humor, lens, retina, cornea, aqueous, pupil and the iris were. Then by slowly removing the layer of retina, we were able to examine even more suspicious parts of the eye.

Throughout the activity, there were so many interesting substances and objects that we found in a cow eyeball. An interesting thing that I found during my experiment is that they look almost exactly like human eyeballs. Overall, I had found it to be an amazing experience. After this activity, I will never look at a cow eyeball the same way again!
- Meghan