A cut above
<p>Caitlyn Lindell, 10, left, Madeleyn Hicks, 10, Michael LaManna, 9, and Austin Cahoon, 9, explore the internal organs of a perch they dissected Friday in their fourth-grade class at Borah Elementary in Coeur d'Alene. With a $519 EXCEL Grant, both fourth-grade classes at Borah were able to dissect a selection of vertebrates and invertebrates for a science course.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Teams of students in teacher Jennifer Reyes' fourth-grade class were animated Friday as they worked on a science project.
Exclamations erupted from around the room: "Oh!" "Whoa!" "Eww!" "Cool!"
The 9- and 10-year-olds, split up into teams at Borah Elementary, were dissecting a fish, a perch, one of several species of animals they would be taking apart and examining during the afternoon.
"Want to see the brain or what?" said Aidan Lawrence as he used small tools to pull open the creature's head.
At a nearby table, two girls used tweezers to carefully pluck and scrape bits of fish flesh away from their perch's skeleton. Not far away, a boy used a sharp instrument to remove a fish eye.
"It's like eating a tunafish sandwich, but worse," said 10-year-old Chloe Goodrich, wrinkling her nose as she watched teammate Trevor Lockwood use tools to pull apart their group's subject.
Reyes reminded the students to be sure to record their observations, to identify their findings inside the fish.
The project was funded through a $519 EXCEL grant that provided tools and specimens for 60 children to participate. The grant also provided funding so the students can hatch frog eggs and chart their growth.
"They'll keep journals for that," Reyes said.
The project would not be possible without the grant from EXCEL, a nonprofit foundation that raises money each year to specifically fund classroom activities in the Coeur d'Alene School District.
"We love EXCEL," Reyes said.
Jimmy McAndrew, the president-elect of EXCEL's volunteer board, visited the classroom and observed the children's scientific exploration.
"It's great. They're all pumped and excited," he said.
The focus of the dissection lesson was animal adaptations. Students were told to identify characteristics that showed how the animals had adapted to their environments, whether they were vertebrates or invertebrates.
The students moved on to dissect crayfish.
"Is that an invertebrate or vertebrate? Is it an exo...?" Reyes asked.
Student Caitlyn Lindell quickly responded: "Skeleton."
The children were set to examine a clam, a starfish, a grasshopper and a frog as well.
Reyes said she hopes the hands-on learning will help the children make meaningful connections that they will carry with them long after the project ends.