McKinnon Secondary College

Valley of the Biology Dolls

By Felix, Rory, Bethany, Katsumi.

When Mr Hilton told us we needed to bring a doll to Science in Term four, a lot of us were very apprehensive….. But now that we’ve got our neglected “Baby Borns” and other miscellaneous things we found in op shops or “Borrowed” from younger siblings, we were free to cut them open and display the wonders of the human body.

Here's what a couple of people had to say about the rather, err, different Prac exercise:

“At first I was a little bit sad about cutting her open, but I'm glad she’s got a digestive system now!” (Bethany Jewell)
“It was a really different and interesting approach to Science.”(Laura and Sophie)

Here was the method we used to learn more about our Insides:

The second you force the Stanley knife into it, is the second there's no turning back. It was an emotional roller coaster that eventually settled down as we gave the poor things some Insides.
Some people were very creative with their organ design, some even using a type of bean, can't remember what type though, to make the kidneys with, and others using a glue gun to melt together the four chambers of the heart.

All up, everyone was impressed with the dolls when Mr Hilton displayed them proudly to the other members of staff, even though a few of them found them “spooky” and “unsettling”, like something from a bad eighties horror flick.

We were certainly impressed with them. It was as though the bent and lengthened Plasticine representing Kidneys, Livers, Lungs and Arteries were just meant to be there, tucked away inside.

All up, this was a very interesting and fun way to learn about the human body’s amazing capability in a very direct and graphic way, and a nice change from text book exercises.