How many gills are there? Why would they have these flaps? If you open the mouth, you can tell a bit about the way in which your species of fish eats.

Moving on, if you look at the flaps on the side (called the operculum), you can see the gills inside. If you look directly into the center of the pupil, you can even see the lens, which is much more spherical than ours. The natural start is to look at the eye, which as students can see they don't have eyelids like us (no why would this be?) In the case of the milkfish, they have an adipose eyelid which is a transparent membrane over the eye. Fish can use these to track prey even in complete darkness!įish heads! Oft neglected in the culinary realm, there's a lot to see in the scientific one! These are very important in schooling behavior, and in tracking prey. Fish and other aquatic vertebrates use these to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. You can peel off a scale or two and look at it up close.Īdditionally, the lateral line is an amazing system of sensory organs that you can see clearly in the third photo of this step. Iridescence is an amazing phenomena, and is caused by tiny guanine crystals in the scales of the fish that give them that metallic sheen. This is so that they can camouflage from predators looking down at them (blend in with the sea floor), or looking up (blend in with the sky).įish vary greatly on the colors of their sides, with many fish having iridescent scales like the milk fish shown here. A common trait that you can see is to have a dark top and a light bottom. But whatever it is, feel it out with your classroom or audience.įish win the rainbow contest for animals, and vary greatly in their appearance, even within a species. There will always be some students who wish not to do a dissection, and we always allow whatever level of participation they choose in these experiences. For us, we believe that with careful scientific exploration of animals who were treated in humane ways, we can learn and teach our students to be greater stewards of the environment, and especially toward the species they just learned about. Cutting device (X-acto, razor blade, sharp craft scissors)ĭissecting animal organisms is a tricky subject which ultimately some will object to and that's okay.1 Fish (or 1 fish per group of two students).Concepts: anatomy, physiology, organ systems, evolution, biology.This works great whether you're out fishing or in a classroom. If you've always wanted the smell of fish permanently lining the insides of nostrils, then fish dissection may be the right thing for you. What's in that fish on your dish? While we may be used to the simple tuna fish sandwich or of simply wondering what the heck our goldfish is thinking about, there's a tremendous amount we can learn by investigating the anatomy of a fish.

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