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SHS Science Club learns to taxidermy moles

If you’ve seen Mr. Stapleton’s classroom, you won’t be surprised to hear that he’s been teaching Science Club.

Snohomish High School’s Science Club hasn’t had active members for two years, but that changed this year when a group of students asked Mr. Stapleton, the club advisor, to get it back up and running. Science Club now meets weekly to practice dissections, conduct experiments like chromatography, and even to learn to taxidermy animals.

Science club has spent their last few meetings working on making stuffed moles. Their first attempt at taxidermy was done on voles, but it was cut short when they tried to thaw them in the microwave. Then they got to work on the real moles, which they luckily hadn’t put in the microwave this time.

The science club members started by removing the organs inside their moles. After, they carefully shampooed and blow-dried the moles. The science club is now working on stuffing and suturing up their special moles.

Mr. Stapleton said that this process isn’t true taxidermy, since it doesn’t involve some of the harsher chemicals usually involved in taxidermy. In the scientific world, the end products would be called museum mounts.

Sophomore Rowan Dykstra said the whole process was, “pretty cool,” and he plans to work on future science club projects as well.

Sophomore Ramon Espejo commented, “I think it was a good learning experience for those who participated.”

Overall, the members of science club learned a lot and they’ll all walk away with this great experience to remember.