Dissecting on the Driveway - Pig Heart

I'm still trying to be awarded "Homeschool Mom of the Year." (Not really, private joke!)


So, to expand my children's understanding of the human body, I made a trip to the Wampler's Sausage Factory. I thought I would stop by and pick up a couple of pig hearts. Yep. Pig hearts.

At the factory, this was my conversation with the receptionist at the Sausage Plant:

Me: Excuse me, Ma'am. I thought I would stop by and see if you might have some pig hearts I could purchase for a class that I teach to homeschoolers. We're learning about the human body, and the kids would love to see a real heart.

Receptionist: (Now, remember I do live in Tennessee.) Well, I think they just shut down the "Kill Floor," but I'll see if I can get 'cha one.

Me: Oh, that would be great. (I think!!!!)

The receptionist then tracks down a kind gentleman to help me. He arrives in the office in his work attire. (I would describe it, but I'm afraid I'd lose most of my readers!) This sweet man says he will "find some hearts for me in the barrels."

This kind gentleman arrives back in the office with a clear plastic garbage bag full of some kind of meat and quite a bit of liquid...ummmm...blood. As he hands me the bag, he says, "I got 'cha two hearts. We had plenty. Now, these ain't been dead very long. They're still warm."

Warm pig hearts? Oh, oh, oh my gosh! Uhhh....Once the world stopped spinning, I was able to focus and walk back out to the van to head home.


Our vehicle was full of extra children, so Franklin had to hold the warm pig hearts on his lap for the 30 minute drive home. I think he secretly thought it was "neat."

Fast Forward...

I took one of the the hearts to my Human Body Class (next blog entry). I kept one at home because Mason is not in my class, and he really wanted to see it. We spent an afternoon on the driveway learning about this amazing organ!

Rhonda, Kaitlin, and Jake came over to assist with the science lesson. We examined the whole heart, talked about the parts and their functions.

The kids stuck their fingers into the pulmonary artery. Isn't it lovely?We realized that we were not able to view the ventricles or atriums, by only examining the outside of the heart. It was Robin to the rescue! Wha-ha-ha! I grabbed our electric knife and cut the heart in half. Yes, I did. Uh-huh! Oh, yeah! (Does this picture look like I am enjoying this? What has happened to me? Oh my goodness!)
Rhonda - who loves all of our driveway science lessons - helped the kids find the right and left atriums, and the right and left ventricles.
Here you go...now you can see for yourself.

The boys (and Rhonda and Kaitlin!) thought the pig's heart was "very cool!" They took it down to our neighbor's house. (And, I let them! What was I thinking?) I had to share this picture to show you our neighbor's face!?!
I'm quite sure there were some people reading this entry making the same faces!


I probably should have started this blog entry with a caution, "Viewer Discretion Advised."


Sorry if I grossed you out! However, if you know me, you know I would find some humor in that fact! Ha-ha!

Human Body Homeschool Class - The Heart

Here's a Homeschool Lesson for Amy, Betsy and anyone else who enjoys these tidbits. :-) This was the lesson about the Heart last week in Co-Op.



We have explored many systems of the body, and we are now studying the circulatory system. Today's focus was the HEART!





Kaelyn impressed everyone with her human body model that she had made at home and brought in for class. (The class earns a "treat" out of my Reward Box if they learn something about the body and share it with the class.) Kaelyn had worked very hard on this life-size model!

Today there were three activities for the kids. Each one was designed to help them understand the function and purpose of the heart.

First, the children had to pass cups of water from one bucket to another at the same rate as their heartbeats. For a child, this is about 90 times a minute! Needless to say, the children started fast, but ended s-l-o-w. It was an excellent way for them to realize how hard our heart works to keep our body going! Whew!

FYI, did you know your heart pumps your blood about 12,000 miles per day! That would be all the way across America four times - in one day! Amazing!

Second, the children made their own stethoscope. The first stethoscope was invented in 1816 by a French Physician. The first model was basically a cylinder of rolled up paper! Therefore, the children stepped back into history and made their own out of a paper towel tube! The outside of the stethoscope was covered with amazing facts about our heart!





FYI, did you know your heart beats about 100,000 times per day or 35,000,000 times in one year! AMAZING!

Third, the best way to learn about the heart - touch one - feel one - hold one - play with one! (Yes, I have lost my mind!) I brought in a pig's heart for the children to explore. The children got to put their finger into the pulmonary artery, explore the right and left atriums, examine the aorta, etc... (Actually, only the boys were brave enough to touch it, but the girls all squealed and made faces!! Eeeww!! Gross!!)

FYI, did you know your the pulmonary artery is your largest artery. It is almost the diameter of a garden hose! (Wow!) Capillaries, on the other hand, are so small it would take 10 of them to equal the thickness of a human hair! (How about that?!) Finally, if you connected your system of blood vessels - arteries, veins, and capillaries - they would measure over 60,000 miles! That is enough to stretch around the world 2 1/2 times! (And some people believe we evolved from dust! Huh?! That is AMAZING!)

The last thing you need to know about the heart - yes, your lesson is almost over - is that there are over 60 verses in the Bible that say something about our heart! God's Word says our hearts should be clean, pure, true, joyful, upright, whole an tender. God's Word even says sometimes we are to have a broken and contrite heart! Finally, we are to LOVE GOD with all of our heart!

Now you know about our AMAZING heart!!