Fascinating plus real.

This is what the Bodies Revealed exhibit claims to provide to the thousands of people who have viewed the nationally known display that is now being shown at the Grand Rapids Public Museum until June 19.

Shores Anatomy students had the privilege to observe this exhibit on Friday, April 15.

The exhibit consists of 14 full body human specimens and more than 200 organs that show the different systems the human body is made up of in real and up-close conditions. The systems displayed include skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, endocrine and circulatory.

“I really enjoyed the exhibit and learned a lot,” junior Megan Bosma said. “It was cool to be able to physically see the things in our bodies that we had been learning about in the classroom.”

The deceased human bodies are preserved through a technique called The Polymer preservation process. This is a technique where the body tissue is permanently conserved using liquid silicon rubber. The end product of this method is a dry and odorless specimen that resists decomposition.  

“I liked being able to see all of the different parts of the body that were displayed, and it made it so much cooler knowing that all of the bodies were once real people,” senior Kendall Murphy said.

This unique experience gave students the opportunity to get out of the classroom and physically see the bodies systems they had been testing on all year.

“This exhibit gave the students the opportunity to see the body in a realistic form, healthy organs vs. diseased, body parts with a cross sectional cut, and fetal development, which are all things that we had learned and I feel that the exhibit really help to reinforced it all,” Anatomy teacher DeAnna Smalligan said.