Hands-on with hearts

Posted 10/13/16

“Who else needs a heart?” science teacher Stan Hedges asked his pre-pre-med students.

There were beef, sheep and pig hearts available, but these burgeoning MDs appeared to be dissecting sheep tickers.

Although the classroom hearts once …

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Hands-on with hearts

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Middle school students explore inner-workings of heart

Seventh-grade students turned surgeons honed their mastery of hearts during science class at Powell Middle School last week.

“Who else needs a heart?” science teacher Stan Hedges asked his pre-pre-med students.

There were beef, sheep and pig hearts available, but these burgeoning MDs appeared to be dissecting sheep tickers.

Although the classroom hearts once pumped blood for hoofed beasts, the difference between ungulate and human is slight, thus ushering realism into the classroom.

The hearts resembled rump roasts with tubes poking out.

“Oh,” said one student making his initial incision. “It is tough.”

Coronary arteries provide oxygen to the heart, Hedges said. He pointed out the minute conduits, about 2 millimeters.

“It wouldn’t take much for it to get blocked, would it?” he rhetorically asked his students.

Plaque can collect in coronary arteries, leading to heart disease.

It is important to maintain heart health, Hedges said. Eat healthy, stay active and don’t smoke.

Hedges instructs his class to open the heart. With utility knives and scissors, the operators go to work.

The medical teams maintain a firm grip on the slippery organs.

Aiden Chandler begins his preliminary examination. “It smells like Silly Putty,” he said.

Logan Brown takes a turn, slicing away with a knife and scissors. His fingers probe the left ventricle. “Feels like veins and stuff.”

Kyler Warren takes his shot, slicing through the multi-vesseled muscle that’s tougher than a 50 cent steak.

“Try the scissors,” Brown suggests.

A lab partner slaps the scissors in his hand like a skilled scrub nurse.

Warren snips away like a pro.

“Keep cutting into the aorta,” Hedges said, asking if they can see the valves.

The aorta looks like an inverted cow udder minus one duct.

“Dude, look at this,” said Chandler. “It’s like the heart strings.”

Brown notes the heart strings resembling cartilage.

“Very interesting,” Brown said, sounding clinical before transitioning back to layman speak. “This is cool.”

There is a bit of joking and laughter at their lab table, but the guys are attentive as their teacher instructs them in the fine art of open table surgery.

The aorta is an artery because it draws blood from the heart, Hedges said. He explained that the heart is like a four-lane highway; it takes blood in and sends blood out.

Hedges and his colleagues — including fellow seventh-grade science teacher Rachel Holmes — expressed their wholehearted appreciation of Roger Beslanowitch of Roger’s Meat Processing outside of Powell.

“Roger’s Meats donated all these hearts — and he has for the past five years,” Hedges said.

It isn’t simply providing the organs, either. Beslanowitch began storing this year’s batch when Park County Fair show stock were brought in for slaughter, Hedges said. Since then, roughly 10 to 15 animals were slaughtered each week at Roger’s, and he kept their hearts in cold storage for the school.

(Hedges added that students who wish to bring in harvested deer, elk or pronghorn for dissection are welcome to do so.)

The middle school science class wasn’t medical school, but Hedges said he hopes some of his students’ interest will be aroused and they’ll decide to pursue a career in medicine.

In what seemed like a heartbeat, it was soon time for the adolescent practitioners to wash up in preparation for their next class.

Some of the students had grown attached to their hearts, but their teacher scrapped any transplant plans.

“No,” Hedges said. “You’re not taking them home.”

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