First came the Biology Quest, with hands-on challenges about DNA, evolution and the natural world.  Then the Medical Biology Quest, where Eagles practiced diagnosing real illnesses, pitched cutting edge medical research and learned about bodily systems.

Now comes the most challenging quest in the Biology series: Embracing Life; Facing Death —  six weeks of digging deeply into the physical, emotional, spiritual and practical challenges of dying.  Too much for middle and high school aged heroes to handle?  Not for our Eagles.

Last Friday’s outing was a tour of the Body Worlds exhibit, where Eagles saw plasticized corpses, displayed in a celebration of the beauty of the human body.

What is life?  What is physical death?  Are Near Death Experiences a look into the after-life or a biochemical response?  How do you perform an autopsy? Is it ethical to display  human corpses in a museum?  Real world challenges raised all of these questions in the last three weeks.

After a reverential viewing of the Body Worlds exhibition, the verdict was unanimous: a well earned outing, taking us one step closer to embracing life and bravely facing death.