Last Friday, November 23, Ms, Mireau’s Bio 11 Class did a fascinating and tasty lab using squid, or otherwise

The dissecting process begins.

known as calamari. They started off by dissecting the squid and then cooking it as calamari. The squid is a very common form of mollusk, which is what the class is currently studying. This lab served as a source of information on the mollusk, but also as a tasty snack.

The idea for this lab came from various of sources. “I got the idea for this lab from another science teacher in this school who also dissects the squid for the mollusk unit,” said Ms. Bree Mireau, Riverside teacher. Once the scientific part was finished, Mireau and students cooked the squid in a deep fryer brought to the classroom to eat. The students had a lot of different reactions to this lab ranging from good to bad. “Most of the students really enjoyed this lab and found it interesting that they could go out to Superstore, buy the squid, dissect it themselves, and then cook it for a snack. On the other hand, I had some students who had to leave the classroom because they couldn’t stand the smell,” said Mireau.

Liza Belskiy and Natalia Dzwinka are two students who enjoyed the lab and shared some of the cooked calamari with the office staff. “I really enjoyed this lab because I found it interesting to see what’s inside the squid that many eat on a daily basis. Despite the fact that I don’t like eating seafood, I found a way to enjoy certain aspects of the process, such as cutting the mantel and looking at all of the organs to see how a squid really functions,” said Belskiy.

Mireau also allowed students to use an area of the squid called the pen that they got to dip in to the ink sack that the squid uses as defense against other sea creatures. The students were able to use their pen that they dipped into the squid’s ink sack to write their name on the lab once they were done eating the delicious calamari. “The finished calamari tasted really good, but it felt very bizarre to eat something that you just finished dissecting,” said Dzwinka.