Right now the science class is talking about different ways in which animals may be adapted to their environments.  As part of that, we have talked about things like compound eyes, which have evolved in a number of different animal lineages because the are a ‘best solution’ to a problem; in this case, the problem of perceiving the environment.  We dissected the eyes of sheep, cows, and pigs, and learned about the anatomy of the compound eye.  Kids that felt uncomfortable doing the actual dissection participated in virtual dissection programs on the computer.

It was a fun experience, and most of the kids really enjoyed it, even if it was a bit gross … We manipulated the lenses of the different types of eyes and got to see the cow’s tapetum (a layer of blue green material that reflects light in animal species’ eyes, thus the enormous round eyes of animals lit up by your car headlights at night).