On March 31st, 2026, Eureka High School’s Human Anatomy class took a field trip to Logan University to see the cadaver lab.
”It was a fun time to get out of the building and enjoy seeing the kids experience what they’ve been learning in the classroom,” Human Anatomy teacher, Mike Thebeau said.”
A cadaver lab is an environment where students as well as healthcare professionals are able to study anatomy through donated dissected human bodies. During the field trip, students were able to see and hold healthy organs as well as organs with certain medical issues.
“I am super excited to see the cadavers and watch the kids as they see the cadavers and learn about them for the first time,” Human Anatomy teacher, Katie Hardee said.
Teachers like Mr. Baremore, who has been attending this field trip for over forty years, and Mr. Thebeau have been involved with taking students on this field trip for years and while this was Mrs. Hardee and Mr. Leuthauser’s first trip, all teachers were able to make the trip memorable through providing an insider and hands-on perspective on what students are learning in class.
“I’m looking forward to riding the bus with Baremore and learning the anatomy of the human body,” Libby Moss, 11, said.
Students were required to wear certain apparel like close toed shoes and long pants. They also put on gloves upon going into the lab and spitting out any gum for overall safety and limiting the potential for ingesting formaldehyde vapors. Formaldehyde is the chemical that is used to help preserve human bodies and is harmful to the human body when ingested over long periods of time.
“I’m so nervous I’m going to throw up,” Letty Leeper, 11, said.
On the field trip, students were able to see insight into medical conditions. They learned what certain conditions actually do to organs to disrupt proper function. For example, they were able to see a lung of a person who had been smoking their whole life, compared to a healthy and normal functioning lung. The healthy lung was softer, larger and reddish pinkish, while the smoker lung was much harder like a rock as well as its lack of the color, being completely black. Another example is a condition students learned called cardiomegaly, which caused the heart to enlarge because it is being overworked.
“The funniest time was about 5 years ago. Normally one or two students will get a little wobbly and have to sit down, but this time we had six students pass out,” Human Anatomy teacher Keith Baremore said, “It was crazy and the teachers were passing each other helping kids out into the hallway.
