Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it's not hard  - you can dissect a clam right at home using this inexpensive clam specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

Materials:

• Fresh clam (in shell)
• Dissection tools
• Clam diagrams

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Procedure:

1. Place clams, one at a time, into boiling water; just long enough that they are easily opened.
2. Take the clams out and snip the abductor muscles so the clams lie flat.
3. Refer to diagrams (click on links above) and locate the following:
   1. Abductor muscles
   2. Gills
   3. Mantel
   4. Excurrent siphon
   5. Incurrent siphon
   6. Stomach
   7. Foot
   8. Mouth
   9. Intestine

Questions to Consider:

1. Is it easier to see the parts in the diagram or the real clam? Why?
2. Do the skewers enter more easily into the incurrent siphon or the excurrent siphon? Why?
3. Where do the siphons end?
4. Measure the diameter of the clam, the size of their stomach, and the size of their gills, on several clams.
   1. Are they all the same?
   2. How great are the distances?
   3. Can this data be graphed?

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Click here to go to part 17:Earthworm Dissection