Objective 62: Describe external and internal gross renal system anatomy

When I was trying to learn the external and internal anatomy of the renal system, I mainly referred to my textbook and slide outlines because they provided me with many visual diagrams. The slide outlines for the chapter 24 provided some basic information that described the different characteristics and internal layers of the organs. Since I am a visual learner, the diagrams were amazing in helping me understand the placement of the organs in the body. Our lab dissection was where the light bulb really clicked on for me though. Dissection 8 was the Urinary System of the Cat and I was able to see first hand how the organs were actually connected and place in relation to one another. Its one thing to see it in the diagram, but it seemed to make a whole lot more sense when I was actually dissecting the cat and seeing the organs for myself. This dissection instructed me to dissect into the kidney (the first picture is the actual kidney I dissected) and the bladder. I'm a hands-on person as well, so being able to see the cortex and medulla of the kidney and also the internal sphincter of the bladder really helped me remember them. I kind of dreaded the dissections at first because I was also afraid that I was going to cut the cat wrong, but I am now glad that I had the opportunity to do the dissection in lab.