By Mrs Wathen (Head of Biology)

On Tuesday 23rd June, our Biology Department hosted a dissection workshop for students from Marston Vale Middle School.

We began with dissections of sheep hearts, kidneys and eyes. We were assisted by Lower Sixth students who attended dissection club in the Autumn Term and also Florence Lionnetti and Aasiyah Meghji in Year 7.

Dr Kempthorn (Biology Teacher), who studied his PhD in Neuroscience at UCL, gave a fascinating talk of the human brain and showed a dissected sheep's brain. Did you know that one of the functions of the fluid surrounding your brain is to wash away the chemical tags that you have accumulated during the day as you sleep? Lack of sleep means this cleansing process does not occur, and cellular junk builds up.

The session finished with a dissection of a lung pluck and inflation of the lung using a bicycle pump. Did you know one human lung contains on average 240 million alveoli for gas exchange?

Outreach sessions like these play an important role in encouraging future scientists and making complex concepts accessible through practical experience.