Dissecting Worms and Tator Tot Hotdish

Well, the 7th and 8th graders had their first dissecting experience today in class.  We started simple with earthworms.

I spent about ten minutes writing instructions on the board about what we were going to do... first safety instructions, then equipment usage, finally pick partners and lab stations, and end with the actual dissection.  They were all distracted by the neon colored goggles.  I bought that color so they would want to keep them on their faces and not try to sneak them off in the middle of the lab.  Unfortunately, they had trouble focusing on anything else.  At least I had them stuck in a tub so they weren't as visible.

We went over how to take off gloves, folding our lab aprons, and washing equipment in the sink (such a pain since we have to walk all the way to the bathroom at the other end of school).  Then I showed them the tools.  When the saw the scalpel, they got all excited and started telling stories about this one person who almost sliced off a finger while doing... well, you get the picture.  I let them choose their own groups and it actually worked really well.  Most of the groups worked well together and figured out what was going on.  A few girls were too grossed out and had some trouble, but thankfully they had less squeamish partners who weren't scared of cutting into a huge worm.

The putting stuff away part of the lab was the most complicated.  They washed off their stuff all right, but forgot to put away chairs and throw away all the wrappers their aprons and goggles came in.  At least we only have to deal with that once.  The room got put back in order without too much hassle and stink.  They were pretty grossed out by the smell of formaldehyde.

One of the 6th graders finally remembered to bring a five gallon pail, so we mixed up our dirt today.  I think I added too much water; the tank is kind of fogging up at the bottom.  But I hooked up the lights and have the heat lamp on, so hopefully that will help dry out the soil substrate by this weekend.

Our class fundraiser was tonight.  Two 6th graders stayed after school; one because she didn't have a ride, the other because he wanted to play hockey in the gym.  Mr. E and I forced them to come over to church to get the hotdish thrown in the oven.  We ended up getting most of the stuff set up before 4:15, when the rest of the class was supposed to show up.  Attendance wasn't quite what I was hoping, but we plowed through most of the tator tot hotdish.  Each family got to take a small tub of it home with them, but that was it.  We ended up making close to $200!  So we are definitely going to be able to afford our little tortoise.  I think all the girls are planning to come along on Friday.  The boys were still saying no, but I mentioned our trip to their moms tonight and the moms think they should go.  So I think my vehicle is going to be packed on Friday after school!  Now the question is, what should we name it?  Should we let the whole school give us name suggestions?  Or just our class?  Hmm, decisions decisions...