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 sheep brain right at home using an inexpensive 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.

In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a sheep brain. Brains, while still not entirely understood by biologists or psychologists, are critical for movement, respiration, thought, memory, processing sensory signals, and more. What we talk about in today’s dissection just scratches the surface of all there is to know about the brain, which is the most complex organ in the human body.

Materials:

• Mammal Organs Dissection Kit
• Dissection tools

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1. Observe the external anatomy of the brain. See if you can locate the following:
   1. Arachnoid mater
   2. Pia mater
   3. Dura mater (may not be present on specimen)
   4. Sulci
   5. Gyri
   6. Cerebrum
   7. Cerebellum
   8. Left and right hemispheres
   9. Longitudinal fissure
   10. Transverse fissure
   11. Olfactory bulbs
   12. Optic chiasm
   13. Spinal cord
   14. Medulla oblongata
   15. Infundibulum
   16. Hypothalamus
   17. Pons
   18. Nerves: abducens, trigeminal, oculomotor
2. Cut the brain in half longitudinally. Look for the following in the cross section from incision 1:
   1. Arbor vitae
   2. Sulci
   3. Gyri
   4. Cerebrum
   5. Cerebellum
   6. Olfactory bulbs
   7. Spinal cord
   8. Medulla oblongata
   9. Hypothalamus
   10. Thalamus
   11. Pons
   12. Corpus callosum
       1. Inferior colliculus
       2. Superior colliculus
   13. Pineal gland
   14. Nerves: abducens, trigeminal, oculomotor
3. Cut the brain in half again, perpendicular to your first cut. Look for the following, this time as a cross section from the second incision:
   1. White matter
   2. Gray matter

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Click here to go to part:26 Sheep Kidney Dissection