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Ethan Reichek

Club President Julianna Shim (right) and officer Reagan Bui (left) hold the undissected sheep brains. The club purchased four sheep brains for dissection.

Neurology Club dissected sheep brains to teach their members about the different parts of the brain and its functions in Room 2603 on Dec. 12.

Club President and sophomore Julianna Shim had been planning the event since Neurology Club was founded at the end of last year. She was the one to find the sheep brains and purchased them on behalf of the club.

“It wasn’t difficult to get them,” Shim said. “I ordered them from Amazon Prime, and it took about a week and a half to ship and cost $13 per sheep brain.”

After bringing the sheep brains in on the day of the dissection, Shim left them with club sponsor Dr. Suvidha Samant, one of the Pre-AP Biology teachers. Samant’s room is one of the larger ones in the science wing, and she uses it herself for labs in her biology class.

“I just brought them in the morning,” Shim said, “They’re vacuum sealed, so there’s no juice or anything, and I stored them in Dr. Samant’s fridge.”

To prepare for the dissection, Shim watched videos she found online from college professors.

“It was my first time doing something like this, even though I was teaching about the procedure,” Shim said. “I just watched the videos, and they all had the same process.”

Shim put the videos in a slideshow, and club members like sophomore Jenna Dorsey watched them alongside Shim’s instruction to dissect the sheep brain. Shim led the club through the whole dissection, as she and the officers dissected a sheep brain in the front of the class.

“I enjoyed how the club leaders led the [dissection],” Dorsey said. “The videos made it easy for us to follow.”

The actual dissection allowed the members to get a first-hand view of parts of the brain such as the pituitary gland, as well as grey and white matter. Being able to actually perform the dissection was an important factor in learning for Dorsey.

“I enjoyed how hands-on it was, and I got to see what we’ve already seen in the slides,” Dorsey said. “They made it easy for us to do.”

Sheep brains were ideal because they were similar to human brains, except smaller. However, this led to its own problems for Shim.

“The most challenging part was making the slides for the dissection or planning out the steps,” Shim said. “Because there’s not that much to dissect in a sheep brain, I had to split it up into sections that had a specific purpose.”

Shim hoped that students would take away lessons about their own brains from the dissection.

“They’ll identify the different parts of the brain and the functions,” Shim said. “Hopefully they’ll be able to apply that to their brain and in taking care of their brain, especially if they’re interested in neuroscience.”

Learn more about Neurology Club by following their Instagram @bhsneuroclub_ and joining their Remind @bhsneuros.