7th Grade Lab: Chicken Wing Dissection

October 12, 2016

The topic for this month’s lab is observing skeletal muscles in a chicken wing. We will study these concepts through the dissection of a chicken wing.

REMEMBER THIS IS AN ACTUAL LAB THIS WEEK! WE ARE HOLDING YOU TO THE SAFETY CRITERIA YOU AGREED TO BY SIGNING YOUR SAFETY CONTRACT. PLEASE BE ON TIME AND PREPARED FOR LAB. TAKE THE TIME PRIOR TO LAB TO CHECK THAT YOU HAVE THE MATERIALS BELOW AND THAT YOU ARE READY TO GO UPON ENTERING THE LAB. WE NEED TO BE READY TO START THE LAB AS SOON AS YOU ENTER THE LAB.

You will NEED the following items for this lab:

 Safety goggles

 Long hair MUST be secured into a bun prior to entering the lab.

We will provide the following materials for this lab:

 Disposable gloves (USE CAUTION WHEN HANDLING MATERIALS TREATED WITH CORROSIVE MATERIALS. This week we will be handling chicken wings that have been treated with a bleach solution).

 A Disposable apron (to protect your clothing from the bleach solution).

 A dissection tray and liner

 Dissection scissors and forceps (WARNING: USE CAUTION WHEN HANDLING THESE SHARP INSTRUMENTS!!!)

 A prepared fresh chicken wing. (For those of you who are squeamish about this experiment, please keep in mind you are working with food quality product that no longer has a “blood pressure” so the chances of having any fluids squirt onto you are slim to none.)

You will NOT need the following items:

 This lab preview. Do to the nature of this experiment; we like to limit all unnecessary exposure to potential biohazards by limiting what materials we have out.

 Food or drinks (including gum/mints and bottled water)  Loose fitting jackets/sweaters...we will require you to remove jackets and sweatshirts for this experiment and all dissections.

 Extra books, bags/purses, etc. EVERYTHING MUST FIT INTO YOUR BACKPACK. UPON ENTERING THE CLASSROOM, PLEASE PLACE YOUR ZIPPED BACKPACK ON THE BACK OF YOUR CHAIR. ALL OTHER ITEMS MUST BE STORED IN YOUR LOCKER!

About the dissection

You will be working in groups of 2-3 for this experiment. One of the lab partners will start out performing the dissection and the other lab partner(s) will assist you with what you need to do by flipping through the procedure. Midway through the experiment, you will switch roles so that everyone gets a chance to gain hands-on dissection experience.