Microscope Day

Cat Skin

We used the microscope to get a close up view of many cells on slides, and even a sample of skin from our own cat. We took pictures of each slide with our Ipads. The cells that we looked at were cat skin, adipose connective tissue, skeletal muscle, simple columnar epithelium, psuedo stratified ciliated columnar, human transitional epithelium, goblet cell, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and stratified columnar. These are written in order according to the pictures, left-right and top-bottom, just in case the labels are too small to be seen.

Best two days of skinning

     In all honesty I did not really enjoy any of the skinning process, because it was disgusting and strange. But if I had to choose, the best two days would be the first and second. First of all they were the easiest and the least disgusting of them all. On the first day we made an incision down the torso to begin with. It was probably the least unpleasant of all of them, but that isn't saying much... The second day we cut down the legs and made a circular incision around them so that we could remove the skin. This was somewhat diffucult because of the thickness of the skin on the legs. The skin was very tough and it was hard to cut through it. These were the two best days of skinning but they were still very unpleasant.

Skeletal, Cardiac, and Smooth muscle

Skeletal: This muscle is attached to your bones and it helps to provide movement by contracting and expanding to move your bones. It also helps with maintain posture.
Smooth: This muscle lines the ventral cavities in your body, it also surrounds your internal organs. It changes the volume of your internal organs by contracting and expanding. One example of something that it does is moves fluids down your esophagus into your stomach.
Cardiac: This muscle is only found surrounding your heart. It contracts and expands rapidly and constantly to keep blood flowing throughout your body.

External Observation Day

     When we first examined the cats that we were going to dissect it was an interesting day, to say the least. We took it out of the bag and examined it to see if it looked as if any bones were broken or anything like that. We also had to hold it over the sink to allow the cat juices to drip out. The smell at this point was horrendous and very unpleasant. Once this awful ordeal was over we placed the cats back into their bags and into their boxes. We then put the boxes away in the back of the room.

About Me

     Hi my name is Reilly, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself. First of all, I am currently 16 and a Junior in highschool. I currently work at Dunkin' Donuts... Which sucks by the way.. I like working there but they don't give me many hours so I am looking for a new job asap. I like to play basketball with my friends in my free time. I also like to box with my friends. My friend owns a pair of boxing gloves so we all fight each other at his house all the time. Another thing that I love to do is play my guitar, one of my favorite songs to play on my guitar is Seven Nation Army, by White Stripes.