RANKIN INLET - A group of Grade 11 students at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik took a traditional approach to understanding anatomy in their classroom this past week.

The class is part of a new curriculum being developed that focuses on traditional Inuit science and skills. This unit is called the seal hunt and one activity calls for the students to learn about anatomy by dissecting a seal.

Science teacher Katharine O'Connell said elder Rosemary Sandy was on hand for guidance and provided the ulu for students to use while dissecting the mammal. She said the lesson is easily applied to human anatomy because, basically, they're both the same.

"I've had students reviewing anatomy from parts of the body in science 15 and that brought us to the seal-hunt unit," said O'Connell. "Every student who wanted to do some dissecting was welcome to and, once Rosemary (Sandy) got it started, a large number of them did take part.

"I had my science 10 class in for a bit of the project because, later in our unit, we're going to look at anatomy through different types of organisms and how they breathe and obtain nutrients.

"We'll be looking at grasshoppers, worms and frogs, so it was good for them to see this because it brought one more aspect to their learning."

After the students dissected the seal and discussed the various parts of its anatomy, time was spent on the proper way to boil the seal and enjoy it with tea and bannock. O'Connell said the sealskin was saved for another lesson that takes place later in the same learning unit.

"One of the activities we'll be doing later in the unit is learning how to tan skin," said the science teacher. "We'll use this skin and have someone come in and teach the students how to properly tan it.

"We're also saving blubber to do an analysis on in the lab to see why it's such a good insulator, and why sea mammals have so much of it.

"A parent donated the seal to our class, and a student brought in some baby seals from a pregnant seal caught near Rankin about 10 days ago, which the students found very interesting."