Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it’s not hard – you can dissect a starfish right at home using an inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.
In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a starfish. Starfish are members of the phylum Echinoderm. There are many things that make starfish interesting: their rays are symmetrical around their center (this is called radial symmetry), they use seawater instead of blood to transport nutrients through their bodies (this is called a water vascular system), and they move around using tube feet on the underside of their bodies.
Materials
- Starfish (click if you need the whole kit, or just the starfish)
- Dissection tools
- Dissection guide