"Pickle autopsy" at Northgate HS turns students into coroners as they master anatomy vocabulary

When Corinne Starr started teaching physiology 23 years ago at Northgate HS, she wanted to make her anatomy lesson more engaging than simply asking students to memorize vocabulary terms. She decided to challenge students with a hands-on assignment that asks them to perform an autopsy on a pickle, looking for clues about how it died. Then, they write up their findings in a coroner's report using the vocabulary terms. "I like whodunnit mysteries," Starr said, after her 4th period class on Tuesday dissected their pickles. "This is definitely a hit. I've kind of modified it over the years and they definitely take to it."
  
Using medical tools including scalpels, forceps and probes, students worked in teams of two. First, they documented how their pickles looked on the outside, before carefully cutting them open with "Y"-shaped incisions and removing the "organs," while noting any abnormalities. "I put objects in the pickles," Starr said. "The students have to figure out how the pickle died. Some were stabbed, some were shot, some have cancerous tumors, some were strangled, etc. One year I even electrocuted a few! Their report will detail their evidence found during the autopsy and show me they can understand the terminology." 

Students Sophia Mac and Matthew Del Valle found white powder in their pickles, students Brady Cannon and Ben Bartolotta found a small stick, and Ramon Iniguez and Emerson Sison found a large piece of a pickle. Sophia and Matthew concluded their pickle was poisoned, Brady and Ben said theirs was stabbed with a wooden object, and Ramon and Emerson were perplexed by the unexpected blob of pickle they found. Was their pickle pregnant? Did someone stab it and stuff something inside of it? Or could the blob be a cancerous tumor?

At the end of class, each team reported their findings. One team said their pickle had heart disease, a tumor, was shot, and drowned. Starr responded: "And you have evidence of all this?" She said she doesn't keep track of each pickle she distributes. She grades the assignments based on students' ability to document what they find and back up their conclusions using anatomical terms. She places items inside such as aspirin (which turns powdery or foamy) and tiny rocks or aluminum beads. Sometimes, she strangles pickles with twine. And she once enlisted the help of the physics teacher to zap pickles with electricity, which left black burn marks.

"I thought it was really fun," Sophia said, after replacing the organs and returning her pickle to the morgue in a ziplock bag. "We are able to use scientific and medical tools, so I found it really interesting." Two of Starr's former students who took the class last year popped in during a break to reminisce about their pickle autopsies and reflect on how the class sparked their interest in medicine. Jamie Swanson said Starr's class helps to shape students morally, emotionally and academically by requiring them to solve problems using teamwork. Jamie recalled finding a black gooey substance inside the pickle and fondly remembered that students became so attached to their corpses they named them and ended the unit with a "wake." The class prompted Jamie to join Sports Medicine, with a goal of pursuing a career in biomedical engineering or anesthesiology. Theo Shuster said Starr's teaching was very engaging and comprehensive and the pickle dissection was a "cool" highlight. "I loved the class," Theo said.