The sun glared through Harned Hall’s third-floor windows, coating the lab in a warm glow as Members of Mississippi State University’s Neuroscience Club hovered over trays of tiny, beige sheep brains Thursday evening.

There was no sharp chemical scent in the lab, but still, everyone wore gloves. Club members held their scalpels and patiently listened to instructions from club leaders, eager to make their dissections.

“Just try to unwrap it, like a little gift on Christmas,” said Aly Williams, senior biochemistry major and vice president of Neuroscience Club, as members peeled back the dura mater — the brain’s protective outer layer.

Maddie Withers, a senior animal and dairy science major, squinted down at the organ in front of her.

“We don’t know what we’re looking for,” she said, pressing the blade into the slimy tissue. “We just found this, so now we’re cutting it open to see what it looks like.”

Beside her, her boyfriend, Owen Wolf, a senior secondary education major, sliced the brain in half. They handed the more detailed piece to the group across from them, who, unluckily, received a second-rate smooth sheep brain.

This is the second year the club has hosted the sheep brain dissection, a rare hands-on experience in a student organization setting. Psychology senior Zoé Ishee, who founded the club and is the president, watched the students and floated around the room, answering questions.

“I’ve always been obsessed with brains,” she said.

Last year, she said she remembered a student gasping, audibly, when she sliced through the cerebellum and saw its structure for the first time.

After the dissection, with the brains chopped up and observed, they were sent off to be incinerated.