Bull Reproduction Dissection

This week for my Large Animal Science class, in order to review the parts of a bull reproductive system, we dissected a bull reproductive system.

After several weeks, dozens of phone calls to local butchers, a few rounds of phone tag, and a request to a student later, I finally got my hands on an intact bull reproductive system. The purpose of the demonstration was to show the students what a real reproductive system looks like, as well as review the different parts and their functions.

To start, I had the system spread out on the table to kept it covered so the students had no idea what we were doing for class. The bellwork of the day was: What are "Rocky Mountain Oysters"? The majority of the class had no idea, but to try and get the students thinking a little bit, I asked who knew and said not to shout out the answer. Once I found out who knew, I had the students who didn't know take a few guesses. I got answers like "Oysters that live in the mountains" and others that were similar. Finally, after several students couldn't stop themselves from laughing, I let them answer the question: Friend bull testicles".

Once I got that answer I picked up my enthusiasm and got excited and asked the students, " Why on earth would I be asking you about food in a reproduction unit!" which some of the students knew right away, that we were going to be dissecting them.

The class went over extremely well, with the dissection (after some serious confusion) we finally identified all of the parts we could find, and began to dissect the testicle.

The students really enjoyed this demonstration overall. I ended the class by having the students trace the path of the sperm cells starting from where they are produced in the testicles to the complete end of the system.


This demonstration showed me a few things, first no matter what happens, if there is something I feel is important for the students to know and get experience with, I need to keep trying. In this case it was getting my hands on a bull reproductive system. the second thing it has taught me is just because I taught my students the theory behind bull reproduction, does NOT mean that they will be able to identify the real thing when the time comes. It took  a lot of prodding and guiding to help the students understand what exactly they were looking at.