Comments - No student every needs to dissect anything, ever - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T20:39:54Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=649749%3ABlogPost%3A360940&xn_auth=noTammy- thanks for that note.…tag:www.classroom20.com,2009-07-07:649749:Comment:3610632009-07-07T20:50:07.048ZMarjee Chmielhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MUchmiel
Tammy- thanks for that note. I agree, when I was teaching science I felt like part of my role was to model a respect for the living world, and your story about your frog experience is horrifying. I think a lot of important anatomy lessons can be imparted digitally, and we probably have a lot more to do in that respect, but it amazes me that some folks are just so sure that actually dissections are valuable even though they have never stood up to rigorous evaluations, yet we insist on such…
Tammy- thanks for that note. I agree, when I was teaching science I felt like part of my role was to model a respect for the living world, and your story about your frog experience is horrifying. I think a lot of important anatomy lessons can be imparted digitally, and we probably have a lot more to do in that respect, but it amazes me that some folks are just so sure that actually dissections are valuable even though they have never stood up to rigorous evaluations, yet we insist on such evaluations on the virtual versions. I teach an online science cla…tag:www.classroom20.com,2009-07-07:649749:Comment:3610352009-07-07T19:44:30.454ZTammy Moorehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/armoorefam
I teach an online science classes to high school students and have been exploring the use of virtual labs as well as hands on labs. I find I am asking myself some of these same tough questions. Dissections in my high school when I was a teen were quite gruesome. We anesthetized frogs so we could see the beating heart. The entire time, I naively believed we would be teen surgeons and stitch them back up for them to heal up for a perfect recovery. I was horrified when we were instructed to put…
I teach an online science classes to high school students and have been exploring the use of virtual labs as well as hands on labs. I find I am asking myself some of these same tough questions. Dissections in my high school when I was a teen were quite gruesome. We anesthetized frogs so we could see the beating heart. The entire time, I naively believed we would be teen surgeons and stitch them back up for them to heal up for a perfect recovery. I was horrified when we were instructed to put them in the trash can on our way out the door. I asked the teacher what was going to happen when the ether wore off. I was told that they were just frogs and not to worry about it. I don't think that is the attitude we want to model for kids.<br />
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I tell my students that horror tale as I teach them to dissect their frogs which come preserved - no beating heart. I don't think I learned more seeing that beating heart than my kids learn now without a heart beat. Extend that a little, and it makes me wonder if the virtual dissection option is just the next logical extension of that.<br />
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One thing that would be nice to build in to a virtual dissection is some variability is specimens within the same program. With real dissections I have been amazed how different one specimen has been from another in size and the ease of finding organs. A virtual dissection could be designed with some of the same variability so the kids realize that real dissections don't always have the most ideal organ visibility. Other experiential details could be worked in too such as the operculums of larch perch are much harder to cut through than the operculums of smaller specimens. I have literally had to get out tin snips to have the leveraged cut needed to make the traditional dissection cuts. If the measure of the virtual experience is to be how closely it models the real world dissection experience, then I think that needs to be a part of it. I think we can all agree that skipping the experience of numb fingers and the smell of formalin (and perch - pew) is fine.<br />
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BTW, I have been working on a layered frog, earthworm, crayfish, and perch so that I can simulate the dissection within Elluminate during lectures. When I finish them, I intend to post them at LearnCentral for others to freely use.