Can This Eye Pun Get Any Cornea?

In this first unit of our STEAM course Cure, we learned about cell biology and the functions of a cell. We started off this term reading, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book is about how HeLa cells came to exist. In the 1950s, Henrietta Lacks was a woman who was diagnosed with cervix cancer. After she passed scientists discovered that her cells kept on reproducing. By doing so we also learned how cells multiply and the importance it has in humans. For this course, we also learned about different surgeries and how cells are affected by the many different procedures. For this action project, we had to conduct a slideshow about a specific type of surgery following the procedure, the cells affected, what type of surgery, post-operation, etc. For my project, I chose to learn about an enucleation which is the removal of the eye, and the process of it contains behind the operation.


While conducting this project I learned so much more than I expected to. When picking the surgery I wanted to learn about I knew I wanted to look into something the eye. I found it really interesting when it comes to something generally simple, but as you dive into it it becomes a bigger concept than imagined like an enucleation. When doing my research I kept connecting back to what we have learned in class with cell biology and the effectiveness it has on our body. I didn’t just connect to this first unit of Cure, but I also connected this project with our previous course, called Disease. I personally don’t know anyone who has had an enucleation, but I found it interesting since it’s not much of common surgery, compared to others. This action project gave me motivation to continue doing some more research about enucleations and other surgeries.