Vicki White: Science done right
LAHAINA – When I first heard that we would be doing an animal dissection, I was unsure of what to expect; but, as always, Vicki White made it interesting and fun.
On Oct. 24, 2018, Vicki White stopped by my seventh grade class at Sacred Hearts School on her Fall Motion Tour. Last year when Vicki visited, she held a school assembly for kindergarten through eighth grade, but this year she offered an exclusive class with the seventh grade.
First, Vicki told us what we would be doing: a dissection on frog’s and sheep’s eyes.
We started with the frog, and Vicki explained the different parts of the frog. She took out a frog and began to show us how to dissect. Then she stretched open the frog’s mouth and a fly popped out!
Vicki said that didn’t happen often, and that we might find more inside the frog. She then made two incisions, by the torso and by the throat, and cut down the middle. She pulled open the frog and showed us the large intestine, small intestine, lungs, heart, liver and stomach. Vicki cut off the stomach at the ends and opened it up; instead of the normal clear stomach, hers was black, which meant the frog died while eating. She found a few more flies in the frog’s stomach and then put the frog on a plastic plate for our group to view.
Vicki then pulled out the sheep’s eye and taught us that our pupils are just holes in our eyes; what we see is known as the lens. She then cut into the eye and showed us how our eyes get their color. At the bottom of the eye was a strikingly beautiful blue and green combination. Once she had finished, she divided the class into groups and gave each of our groups one frog and two sheep’s eyes. We all then got to work on our own dissections and had a lot of fun learning about the animals’ anatomy.
White, known as “The Science Lady,” has been teaching science for over 20 years. She offers hands-on presentations at schools and makes learning the science principles easy and fun.
Vicki is on Maui right now for her Fall Motion Tour. She works with children and adults of all ages and provides a learning experience you won’t soon forget. She will be back on Maui Jan. 28 through Feb. 13, 2019. For more information, visit her website at www.vickiwhitethesciencelady.com.