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Citrus High School science students visit the display of human bodies at a Tampa museum.
By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE
Published December 8, 2005
It was an opportunity that science teacher Joseph Elizarde couldn't let pass. The human body display was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, and it was too close not to go.
So Elizarde, who teaches anatomy and physiology and physical science, packed up his Citrus High School students, and a few from Doug Patton's science classes, and off they went.
"This was a chance in a lifetime," Elizarde said.
Though his students can dissect fetal pigs, they don't have a chance to dissect human bodies in high school. "This was an opportunity to actually see human anatomy at its best, all different views, all different dissections," Elizarde said. "There's no substitute for that."
He also appreciated that some of the bodies were not perfect. The students could see imperfections, such as a mended bone and a liver damaged by cirrhosis.
The students spent about two hours looking at the exhibits, Elizarde said. Later, they saw an accompanying IMAX presentation that showed "showed some really great electron microscopy in motion."
Ninth-grader Will Bradburn, 16, described some of the sights. "They've got this human, they separated his skeletal system and muscular system, and you could see the whole skeletal system and muscular systems at the same time," he said. "I found it fascinating and disgusting at the same time."
Jillian Messer, 14, a ninth-grader, was impressed with "being able to see what people could do separating these bodies."
"I mean, they looked like plastic," she said. "They didn't even look real. It didn't really hit me until the end that these are really real bodies. It was very cool. It was awesome."
Bailey Jacobson, 15, a ninth-grader, found two areas of the display particularly interesting.
"The most impressive for me was the fetal development," she said. "It was very sad, because you knew that was somebody's baby. They were suspended in glass tubes in stages until birth. It was very cool. And the circulatory system, and how they got every vein, artery, capillary, everything in the arms. It was so delicate. It was really eye-opening to see body parts and how they work."
Bailey said there were hearts and brains available for visitors to hold. She didn't. And, like Jillian, she said it didn't hit her that the bodies were real until the end of the visit. Candice Bell, 16, an 11th-grader from Patton's class, said: "It was really cool. I liked how they had a lot of science things for little children and I liked the IMAX theater. It was different. The graphics were really cool."
[Last modified December 8, 2005, 01:02:27]
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