Question of the Month—Answer
Which exhibit did our Anatomy & Physiology students visit at OMSI?
b) Body Worlds
Students from Ms. Lacks’ Anatomy & Physiology class recently attended the Body Worlds exhibit at OMSI. Due to Covid-19, the class was not able to attend all at the same time, so students got free tickets to attend on their own time and were able to bring along a family member as a guest.
The exhibit shows over 100 actual human body specimens that have been preserved using a technique called Plastination. The technique allows the specimens to appear very lifelike, to be dissected in different ways, and to be posed in different positions.
The exhibit also highlights disease, and shows body parts affected by cancer and other illnesses. There is also a Prenatal Gallery which shows human specimens from all stages throughout pregnancy.
-- Ms. Lacks
Here are some quotes from the students about their experiences:
“Plastination occurs so they can preserve the body and to prevent the body from decomposing... Plastenating a body can take up to 1,500 hours of work and can take up to a year!”
-- Kelsey Arteaga-Soto '21
"The specimen that stood out to me the most was the Tai Chi Man, which showed a human body with a lot of metal implants. The metal replacements showed how bones that are broken beyond repair have to be replaced with metals. I saw that the specimen had metal replacements in his shoulder, hip, and knee. Those were the things that caught my eye.” -- Pablo Benitez '21
“The large plastinated specimen that stood out to me the most was ¨The Kneeling Lady.¨ It fascinated me that that's what's underneath our skin and how our muscles look and move.”
-- Chevelle Boyd '21
"I noticed how babies really transition from the beginning stages of pregnancy towards the end. I learned how babies are able to have hearts and eyes at just four weeks of development. It's crazy to think that a heart and eyes can develop inside of someone within just one month."
-- Janae Boyd '21
"The one that stood out to me the most was the specimen that was holding his own skin. It was kinda disturbing but interesting at the same time. It was cool to see how the skin still had detail and hair on it." -- Nia Cannon '21
"One large plastinated specimen that stood out was the cartilage on the body. I saw the cartilage on the ear that makes up our ears and I noticed that it is in the exact form of an ear which means that our ears are built up of nothing but cartilage and I never thought about that before so it stood out to me and surprised me." -- Evan Felix '21
"In the 'Prenatal Gallery' I saw the stages of development of the human child that occurs inside the female uterus. Something I learned is that toenails on the fetus begins to form at 13 to 14 weeks in pregnancy." -- Alexia Lee '21
"The lungs that suffer from disease were black and grey and they had little small holes in them. What I learned was the lung cancer that originates from the bronchial walls can be caused by smoking tobacco, and that could also lead to tumor growths." -- Hailey Rhodes '2
"I learned more about the digestive system. In one part of the exhibit, there was a glass display that showed the digestive tract starting from the tongue and extending all the way down to the anus. I was surprised at the 23-foot-length of the small intestine. It’s hard to imagine that something that long can fit inside a human body." -- Hedid Rojas Salinas '21
"I think I learned the most about the nervous system and the circulatory system because there was a glass case that had all of the nerves in place and I had no idea that that's actually what the nerves in our bodies looked like. A similar thing happened with the other system. I saw a case with the blood vessels in our foot and I didn't know that's how many we had and what they looked like. Seeing what they looked like taught me more than reading the descriptions of things."
-- Tre’Nisha Shearer '21
