Last Thursday, Mrs. Krumroy’s Anatomy and Physiology students had the opportunity to go on an after school field trip to Baldwin Wallace, where they would observe a cadaver which was presented by a professor. Out of her two classes, about 10 students decided to come– most of them carpooling together and going to Five Guys after the presentation. I was fortunate enough to be one of those students.

The field trip had been talked about for months but became official in the beginning of April. Student’s were asked to sign a white from provided by BW, saying that they wouldn’t do things like eat in the lab and take pictures of the cadaver (because it would be disrespectful and inappropriate). For the days leading up, the classroom was buzzing with excitement and trying to get Mrs. Krumroy to go with her students to Five Guys after.

Junior Collin Sabo at one point said, “Phones off, cadaver’s on!”

The lab at Baldwin Wallace (which was located in Telfur Hall) is exactly what you would picture as an anatomy lab.  The walls of the rooms were lined with sinks and diagrams and lab aprons. On the wall by the door were labeled diagrams of the skeletal system, muscular system, and blood vessel systems.

There were metal tables all around the room. All of them had two or three trays on top of them, containing some human body part such as livers, reproductive systems, kidneys, urinary bladders. You name it, it was probably there somewhere.

And of course, the part that everyone was most excited about. The cadaver. The cadaver was situated on a metal table in the front of the room. The table was almost like a massive, metal box with preservatives in the bottom part- a vat of chemicals in which the cadaver was lowered into. Kind of like Frankenstein, honestly. The chest, abdomen, and cranium were opened up to reveal what was inside.

At one point, the professor took the heart out to show the four chambers inside. In my opinion, the coolest (and kind of disturbing part) was watching the professor pull on the tendons in the forearm, flexing and extending the fingers.

“Although we dissect cats in Anatomy and Physiology, the opportunity to see what is under the skin of a human takes anatomy studies a step further,” Mrs. Krumroy said. “Some people may find this practice distasteful or disturbing but I find that my anatomy students are looking at it from a different perspective, making this field trip an excellent supplement to taking the course. This was an opportunity for LHS students to see a university lab setting and for the university to see the high quality of students that LHS has.”