By Brent Hardin

PLATTSMOUTH - Caskets, urns and embalming fluid were all part of the day's lesson plan for Plattsmouth students at Fusselman-Wymore Funeral Home Friday.

Eighth-grade students toured the Plattsmouth funeral home as part of a unit on death and dying. Plattsmouth Middle School family and consumer sciences teacher Brenda Navratil said the visits have been informative for students who may not have been exposed to the funeral process before.

"I have a lot of students who have never attended a funeral and none of them have had to arrange a funeral, so it's definitely a learning experience for them to come to the funeral home," Navratil said. "Most don't understand the range of choices people make or how a funeral all comes together, so I think it's something that's beneficial for them."

"It seems like they really learn a lot coming here so that's been good to see," Fusselman-Wymore Funeral Home funeral director Brian Harvey said. "I've enjoyed giving the tours for them."

Harvey, who has been conducting tours for PCS students the past 10 years, showed pupils two different types of caskets and provided information such as casket costs, dimensions and features to them. Students learned about both the cremation and embalming processes and visited the preparation room to see where embalming takes place. They also viewed different types of urns and other funeral-related items.

The death and dying unit is one segment of a semester-long health class. Previous units focused on nutrition, eating disorders, mental health, substance abuse, non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes and communicable diseases such as mononucleosis. Students will transition from the death and dying unit into a unit focused on pregnancy and birth.