Lab Report Questions

The purpose behind dissecting a cow’s eye relates back to its similarities with the human eye. The anatomy of the cow and human eye are very similar and dissecting the cow’s eye allows us to gain an understanding of the structure and function by observing up close the parts of the eye.

1. The process of getting prepared included putting on a lab apron, gloves, and safety goggles. Then we had to set up our station by laying out all the tools on a paper towel. We collected the cow’s eye and trimmed away the muscle and fat tissue around the eye.

2. The procedures were: step 1: cut completely around the cornea to remove step 2: make a media cut in the middle of the eye step 3: remove the iris in a complete circular piece step 4: remove the lens with the attached vitreous humor step 5: remove the vitreous humor from the lens step 6: cut the lens in half to observe the layers step 7: remove the tapetum from behind the retina step 8: make a slide to observe the retina, tapetum, optic nerve, and iris under the microscope take a picture of each at each of these steps.

3. The materials and equipment required were: a scalpel, dissection tray, probe, microscope, tweezers, slides, coverslips, ruler, beaker, eyedropper, safety goggles, lab apron, gloves, a cow’s eye and a camera to take pictures with.

4. We learned over all how the different parts of the eye look after they become non functional. The lens is cloudy, the retina detaches, and the vitreous humor doesn’t put as much pressure into holding the eye’s shape.

5. By doing this dissection it confirmed the different eye parts and their location in the eye that we learned before hand in our textbooks.

6. Trying to cut the lens open surprised us the most because it was so hard to slice and once it was in half we could see the many different layers in the lens much like an onion.

7. We did well at dissecting and knowing all the parts of the eye at we cut it open.

8. We struggled with cutting the iris thin enough to see under the microscope. It was kind of thick and hard to see all the details.

9. In conclusion, this dissection proved to be very helpful by giving a real life view of the organ rather than just pictures in a textbook. As we dissected it took us through the anterior all the way back to the posterior, following the track of light as it passes through the eye.