Rat Dissection Groups 1 Choose your dissection groups

Rat Dissection Groups 1. Choose your dissection groups! NO MORE THAN 4, NO LESS THAN 3 2. Make sure someone in your group is willing to touch the dead rat. 3. Sit with your dissection group today.

Rat Dissection

Dissection Equipment Tray T pins

Dissection Equipment Forceps Scissors

Dissection Equipment Probe Scalpel

GLOVES! • You do NOT have to wear gloves. • If you don’t plan on touching the rat, you definitely don’t need any. • To ensure you have a pair. BRING YOUR OWN GLOVES (BYOG)

To receive a grade I have to check off your CLEAN and DRIED equipment to make sure everything is accounted for. You must also clean your table with cleaner and paper towels. TRASH goes in the TRASH CAN (what a concept - its like two steps away) AND WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!

How well do you know your RAT?

1. What is this large internal rat organ underneath the lungs and heart?

2. What are these organs that filter the blood?

2. What in the world do you think these are?

FOR YOUR INFORMATION…

Rat Taxonomy Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia

Rat Tidbit: In Western countries, many people keep rats as pets. They usually have more unusual coloring and are gentler than wild rats, but domesticated are more disease prone.

Rat Tidbit: The Black Plague is believed to have been spread by rat-borne parasites. This pandemic peaked during 1348 -1350 and killed approximately 100 million world wide.

Rat Tidbit: Albino rats are frequently subjects of medical, psychological, and other biological testing. In October 2003, researchers succeeded in cloning two lab rats.

Rat Tidbit: A month in a rat’s life is equal to 2. 5 human years. Domestic rats usually live around 3 years, but wild rats tend to live for less than a year.

Rat Tidbit: Rats cannot vomit or burp. This is for three reasons: 1. Rats have a powerful barrier between their esophagus and their stomach. 2. Vomiting requires the two muscles of the diaphragm contract independently, and rat’s don’t do that. 3. Rats don’t have complex connections in the brain to coordinate the many muscles involved in vomiting.