Procedure:
1. Obtain a sheep heart, dissecting tray, dissecting instruments (scalpel, scissors, metal probe and metal pointer), straws to be used as probes, gloves and goggles.
2. Notice the accumulation of adipose tissue (fat). View the coronary arteries.
3. Once you have identified the base and apex and anterior (toward the front) and posterior (toward the back) sides of the heart, identify the wrinkled auricles (ear like flaps of tissue projecting from the atrial chambers). The rest of the heart is the ventricles. The left ventricle is thicker because it pumps blood to all of the body cells of the sheep.
4. Identify the pulmonary trunk and aorta leaving the superior (top) aspects of the heart. (Usually the Pulmonary trunk is more anterior and the aorta is posterior to the pulmonary trunk)
5. Starting in with the right ventricle make an incision with your scalpel, and make a frontal plane cut about one quarter inch deep. (A bagel cut but not completely in half) The cut should continue up through the atria until you reach the arteries and veins. At the pipes you should make a transverse cut and remove the top layer.
6. Identify the 4 chambers of the heart the 4 valves and the septum. Locate the openings for Superior and Inferior Vena Cava, and pulmonary veins.