Classroom Pass is an Iowa Now project that sent teams of writers, photographers, and videographers to 15 classes on Wednesday, Oct. 22, to showcase the breadth and strength of the University of Iowa's academic offerings for undergraduates as well as its dynamic faculty and state-of-the-art facilities. See what other classes they visited.
Class: Human Biology
Instructor: Kris Williams, lecturer in the Department of Biology
Iowans know a thing or two about slicing into pork, but they’re not always taking a scalpel to a preserved fetal pig.
That’s exactly what students in a biology lab are doing today as they get a closer look at the organs that keep pigs—and humans—running.
“They get to see almost the same as what’s inside their own body, which I think is really cool,” says lecturer Kris Williams.
Williams leads students through a series of presentations about the major organs of the human body before opening up bags of pale pink pigs and dispersing them among the tentative lab groups. And while several students are wary of slicing through the skin of the unborn piglets, curiosity eventually takes over and they get involved. A sure sign of the 21st century, some even took a selfie with their pigs.
Learn more about the Department of Biology.
Perhaps the most striking part of this class is that none of the students are biology majors. For Williams, it’s a chance to bring science knowledge to more people.
“I think it’s really important that they understand the functioning of their own organs in their body,” she says.
Michelle Burken, a sophomore from Clarence, Iowa, majoring in health promotions, isn’t grossed out by the dissection process, and she leads her group through the process of identifying different organs. She says she’s excited to use what she learns in biology throughout her career.
“We’ve learned a lot about the different organs and systems of the body. With health promotion and wanting to go into nutrition and things like public health, I think it’s really good to have a basic knowledge and then you can build on that,” Burken says.
Someday, she might even have that pig selfie framed on her office wall.
