Trying a more hands-on approach for club activities, Diamond Bar High School’s neuroscience club held an on-campus brain dissection during lunch on Jan. 16.

During the event, which was held in science teacher Richard Goya’s room, club officers dissected a sheep brain in front of the club’s members. During the dissection, officers offered an in-depth narration about the brain’s anatomy and explained how the different parts worked.

“We made connections [between] the sheep brain and the human brain, like how the sheep brain is smaller and not smart [compared] to the human brain,” senior officer Christopher Lee said.

The members sat in four small groups with one officer assigned at each table. Only officers were allowed to make incisions during the dissection process while members were able to touch or hold the brains.

“In this area, there’s not a lot of places where you can learn about neuroscience,” senior president Brian Lee said. “So, we wanted to create an environment where we can bring the knowledge to our members and instill a curiosity for not just neuroscience but science in general.”

Lee said the event was meant to elevate the learning experience for club members and give them a better idea of actual anatomy.

“We didn’t want to do this in a traditional PowerPoint presentation because this [anatomy] is truly foundational knowledge that we want to make as interesting as possible to learn for our members,” he said.

Club officers ordered the five brains used during the dissection through the school.

“If we had a question, we could ask and they [the officers] could just tell us right away using the dissection,” sophomore Elise Kwon said. “Overall, I learned a ton and it was really interesting.”