Students explore the workings of a sheep's brain during a Talent Identification Program class. Photos by Megan Mendenhall/Duke Photography
Fourteen students squirmed and squealed as they dissected sheep brains.
“Do you see the lateral ventricle?” asked Angelique Mole, instructor of the neuroscience class for Duke’s Talent Identification Program’s Summer Studies, a three week summer session for students in grades 8 through 11.
Mole and teaching assistant Mak Pryor directed the students with instructions as they carefully sliced into different sections of the brain. Wearing safety goggles and gloves, the students worked in groups of two and three as they inspected the sheep brains. The students had been learning about structures such as the pituitary gland, parietal lobe and the cerebral hemispheres in class prior to the dissection. Now they actually located the parts of the brain previously discussed in class. For most, this was a novel experience.
Duke’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) works with academically gifted students and challenges them to learn beyond what is expected of most of their contemporaries.
“I’m glad I got to see the grey and white matter in the brain,” said Eric Huang, a first-time TIPster from Taiwan.
The students neatly cut the brains into thin slices and examined them. They talked among themselves as they tried to identify the parts of the brain. There was laughter and giggling, but the students remained focused throughout the assignment.
Angelique Mole instructs the students as they dissect a sheep's brain.
Jay Lee, a local student from Mooresville, NC, said the unusual opportunity to handle a brain helped him understand the concepts the class had been discussing.
“It was fun to look inside the brain and see what we have been talking about in class,” said Lee.
Mole and Pryor walked through the class, as students showed them their work. By the end of the session, the students had teased out how the different parts of the brain worked together.
Eric Green, academic coordinator at Duke TIP West Campus, said this program allows middle and high school students to experience a college-level education without the pressure of grades, rankings and standardized testing. “It's just learning," he said.
“These students get opportunities to enhance their future and create a path for themselves,” said Green. “This gives them a renewed excitement for learning different things.
“They are so used to seeing pictures, this allows them to touch and handle the brain."
Dissecting sheep brains is typical of the kind of active, hands-on learning the program emphasizes, Green said. This summer, TIP students programmed and built robots, studied DNA in a biotechnology class, and traced the history of Western music from classical to rock, among many other topics.
The combination of challenging classes and engaged students eager to work together makes teaching the TIP classes a joy for the instructors.
“The students are smart and they are motivated to learn,” said Mak Pryor, the neuroscience teaching assistant. “This experiment was a great opportunity for them to physically see the brain. “
Mole, the neuroscience instructor, said she learns a lot from teaching the classes.
“I find it rewarding to teach the students who have the same goal to learn new things,” said Mole. “I enjoyed watching them light up as they were dissecting the brain. “
For more information on Duke TIP, visit https://tip.duke.edu/or call (919) 668-9100.
Shakira Warren is a rising junior at NC Central University who is working this summer as an intern in Duke's Office of News and Communications.