Fetal Pigs Help North Springs Students Learn About Brain Injury

Courtesy Carol Ciepluch

North Springs science students recently dissected fetal pigs to learn about an uninjured brain in preparation for a study of acute brain injury.

The class pairs interested students with researchers from Morehouse School of Medicine in a program called Power-IT - Promoting Our Worth as Entrenpenurers and Researchers in Innovative Technologies. It's a project of the National Sciences Foundation with a neuroscience focus, and the third year North Springs and Morehouse have collaborated on Power-IT. 

"Most of the students participating want to become doctors or biomedical researchers," according to Dr. Steven Moody, North Springs Science Department chair. "The fetal pigs provide an animal model with a brain similar in development and anatomy to human brains, so the students find it very interesting."

Morehouse provided the pigs and dissecting equipment. The students worked in dissecting teams to carefully expose and then remove each pig's spinal cord and brain.

Kyle Fears, a senior who chose to come to North Springs for the magnet programs and wants to major in pre-med agreed, "I did this (dissecting) last year too. It's great. We get to do a lot here you wouldn't do at other schools," he said.