PENDLETON — The fourth grade students at Washington Elementary School donned goggles, gloves and plastic aprons, in addition to the now usual masks, and headed outside to rows of squid dissection stations set up adjacent to the school on Tuesday, April 20.

The group of excited students found their way to their stations as fourth grade teacher Hunter Erwin began to give instructions to the classes.

As the excitement began to get louder, Erwin shouted, “ink, ink,” the students’ hands shot up — fingers outstretched and waving — as they called back in unison “tentacles” in response before quieting down.

Before leading off the dissection he offered a reminder to students that the squid they were about to dissect were once living creatures and to treat them with respect.

“Treat them with respect,” he said. “We have these to provide an opportunity to learn.”

Students began to reach for their tools as the first instruction was given — to remove a tentacle from the squid and inspect its sucker cups under a magnifying glass.

“I think it’s really cool,” said student Griffin Hillenbrand as he peered through the magnifier at the small sucker cups that adorned the squid’s tentacles.

Fourth grade teacher Garth McCaleb said the students had spent the last two weeks learning about the internal and external structures that make up plants and animals, and were excited to be able to use those lessons in real life.

McCaleb added that in a traditional year students would be paired into groups of two or three and share a squid in each group. However, additional supplies provided by the InterMountain Education Service District allowed each student to dissect their own squid.

“We were able to get a squid for every student this year,” he said.

Students followed along with a list of instructions, taking care to identify the various structures that make up the squid, carefully cutting back the mantle and removing internal structures for closer examination.

“It’s kind of weird, but I like it,” said student Cheyenne Loomis before comparing her squid to those of her fellow lab partners.

While reactions to the process varied slightly, there was a buzz of excitement in the air as students called out parts they discovered and small groups compared their squid. In addition to identifying structures, such as the beak and eyes, students identified the gender of their squid by looking for eggs within the animal’s mantle.

A highlight of the dissection for many students was finding the squid’s ink sac and using the ink to write and draw on paper.

Throughout the process instructional staff circulated between groups answering questions and helping students find various structures if they were unable to.

“It’s very cool,” said Dreux Hall, a student. “It’s a little icky, but really cool.”