Anatomy and Physiology teacher Kelsey Anderson is facing difficulties in supplying preserved specimens for students to dissect due to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration this year. As an alternative, she has chosen to purchase fresh specimens for some dissections, which have proved more effective for certain aspects of anatomy than preserved specimens.
Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, where the tax is usually paid to the government by companies bringing in foreign products. However, these companies can pass some or all of the extra costs onto their customers by increasing the prices of their imported products.
Because of the increased price of the fetal pigs, Anderson made the decision to purchase other specimens locally from a butcher. This choice meant that the body parts would be fresh— uncharted territory for the class.
“I went with the fresh specimens for our circulatory respiratory system, just because it was cheaper, easier to get, and I didn’t have to do any shipping,” Anderson said. “I could go and pick it up myself.”
The pigs that students dissected were significantly smaller than the ones that I typically order, but these were the only ones that were available when I ordered over the summer.
Anderson typically orders preserved specimens online. She has noticed both a price increase and a size decrease in the fetal pigs she has bought for students to dissect.
“The pigs that students dissected were significantly smaller than the ones that I typically order, but these were the only ones that were available when I ordered over the summer,” Anderson said.
Students dissected a fresh sheep pluck in this unit, which consisted of a heart, lungs, trachea, and esophagus. Although this was the first time Anderson taught the dissection of a fresh pluck, she discovered that it proved more effective in teaching students about the circulatory and respiratory systems.
“Seeing the connection between the circulatory system and the respiratory system, and having the ability to use that bike pump to see the lungs inflate, because that’s exactly how ours do it,” Anderson said. “You cannot do that with preserved plucks; the elasticity is gone.”
Junior Orrin Spiess preferred to work with the fresh sheep pluck, as it felt more authentic and provided a better learning experience.
“It’s fresher and it’s larger, it feels more realistic, and it’s easier to translate that to the material that we learned prior,” Speiss said.
Anderson agrees that the fresh pluck was a better option than the preserved versions that have been dissected in the past.
“It was awesome to me. I will never not do fresh plucks because of how much more authentic I think the experience is,” Anderson said.
Regardless of whether a specimen is preserved or fresh, Speiss has enjoyed the dissections more than any other aspect of the class.
“They’ve definitely been the highlight of the class,” Speiss said. “I think it’s what makes it stand out from really any other elective, and especially any science elective.”
While a fresh sheep pluck has become the new norm, Anderson admits that preserved specimens are sometimes the better choice when it comes to teaching anatomy.
“I wouldn’t do fresh [specimens] for everything,” Anderson said. “I think I will definitely plan ahead better with the fetal pig situation, I think there was some learning lost with the size of the pigs that students had.”
The combination of the high cost, reduced size and general difficulty in finding specimens online has been a learning experience for Anderson, who is already preparing for next year’s class.
Some changes she plans to make are “ordering earlier and giving myself more time so that I can look at other sources and compare pricing, as well as restructuring the curriculum a little bit to do more fresh specimens, and seeing what fresh options are available besides a pluck,” Anderson said.
