Alpine Lake Resort Resident Works with Area Homeschool Students

What do Terra Alta, science education and Alpine Lake Resort have in common?  Cows’ eyes of course!  Recently, Alpine Lake Resort resident Sheila Amato conducted a hands-on cow eye dissection program for 10 Preston County Homeschool Co-op students.  The students in attendance, ranging in age from 5-18 years of age, got to experience a hands-on science lab with their peers, and in some cases, their parents, led by a seasoned local resource.

Amato has been a teacher of children who are Deaf and/or Blind for over 50 years, and has also taught future teachers (of children who are blind) in graduate classes and university programs throughout the country for 20 years. Her areas of specialty are in teaching Braille and a course typically called Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye. With an Ed.D. in Blindness and Visual Impairment from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, in New York, she loves sharing her knowledge and passion with children and providing them with unique experiences that enhance their education.

“Explaining how an eye works and teaching children Braille, helps to give them a level of comfort when they meet a classmate or adult with a disability. This is the second time I’ve conducted this hands-on lab class for the Preston County Homeschool Co-op at Alpine Lake. It’s a unique opportunity for the students to get together and expand their science knowledge.  Many of these students live on a farm and have first-hand experience in caring for animals, including cows. The experience of learning about the anatomical structure of a cow eye and how it is similar to – and how it differs – from their own eye raises their level of understanding in a unique manner,” stated Amato.

When some of the students enter the room, they may stay back with their parents… saying that they weren’t going to do this. The “yuck” factor of the unknown is present.  Once the program starts, by viewing a flip chart where the instructor draws a picture of the eye, and labels the parts and explains what they do, students’ interest is peeked. Students also get some surprises such as the fact that the pupil doesn’t really exist; it’s a hole in your eye! After students receive the medical terminology for the parts the group discusses their function and questions are posed and answered.

Once students go to their respective work stations, the cow eyes are taken out of the bucket in which they were contained, and the first thing students see is a heavy layer of fat – developed by mother nature to protect the eye. Amato then dissects the first cow eye while students watch, and tries to pique their interest and get them to try to touch it by starting off by quickly cutting away the fat and exposing the optic nerve, a hard, easily seen structure outside the eye.  Students then get to touch the optic nerve and receive a quick explanation of how the muscles move the eyes.  Now that the students are more comfortable, Amato cuts the eye in half and shows them the Jell-O-like fluid in the eye. Likewise, the students get to see and touch the other parts of the eye, along with learning the associated medical terminology and function.

After the initial exercise, everyone dons gloves, including the parents, who are ready to help their children if necessary. Each student (some with help) follows the instructions given, and to locate and identify each part of the external and internal cow eye, and explain what it does.

After completing the two-hour program, students have participated in a whole new level of experiential science education, not unlike that given to undergraduate and graduate university students.  Students also have a greater awareness of the complexity of the science around that of all living creatures.  And, as Amato says, “these students – and their parents – will never look at a cow – or a bowl of Jell-O – again without remembering this experience.”

Alpine Lake Resort is a four-season, multi-amenity resort in Terra Alta, in the beautiful mountains of Preston County, West Virginia.