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While looking around in the Learning Center I found an interesting article on doing actual dissection on frog models bought at the dollar store. This was interesting alternative to dissection of real or virtual frogs. I am attaching the article.

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Science Sampler: Frog dissection—An alternative model (Journal Article)

Hi Heather,
As specimens became more and more expensive, our school went to a virtual frog dissection. I thought it was an excellent alternative (I think we used Digital Frog). However, we still did an actual squid dissection. I would purchase the whole frozen squid by the box of 10 to 14 specimens at our major grocery store chain. The students loved it, and the whole dissection could be completed in one class period. (See: Dissect Your Squid and Eat It Too!)There are pros and cons to both real and virtual dissection opportunities. It is important to know if your district has a policy in place about this. Some middle schools do not do dissections anymore. Many high schools have alternative activities if students do not wish to dissect. Know your community and be sure that any dissection activities are directly connected to your state's standards for your grade level. You might also want to refer to the NSTA's position statement on dissections.
Carolyn

Our school has Smart Boards and the software that goes with it includes a good frog dissection that you can project on the Smart Board while students use the touch screen to move the tools and examine the external and internal anatomy. I don't know if all Smart Boards have the same software, or if you even have access to one at your school, but hopefully this will help!

Heather, I have done both virtual and real dissections with my middle school students. I have to say, they were both equally successful. For the frogs or other animals that were once live, it is good news that middle school students generally get as much out of a virtual dissection as they do out of the live dissection. That being said, a lot of what you get out of the dissection really does depend on how well prepared students are ahead of time. Realistically, these were once live animals that gave their lives for us to learn from, and if that respect can be conveyed to the students where they can respect and understand the sanctity of life, then that too can be a lesson. If students are really aware of what they are looking at, and can gain real knowledge that will be carried forth, then I have no problems with the live dissection. However, all too often, many middle school students look at it as an opportunity to “hack something” up, which is not only wrong ethically, but down right creepy. One of my most successful rounds of dissection occurred when we did the virtual dissection first, then the live one. Students really took the task seriously and you could hear them make comparisons to the virtual dissection and the “3-D one”. Carolyn is right though, you do have to look at the district policy on dissection, but don’t forget to look at the community and the cultural aspects of live dissections.

I must say i am very pleased to see more science teachers using virtual dissections versus actual animal specimens. I am totally against real animal dissection because of my stand on animal ethics. I don't think it's humane to raise animals and kill them just for the sake of poking instruments into them when there are perfectly good and viable means to avoid this cruelty and still gain the knowledge needed. I highly recommend the following sites for free resources into dissection-alternatives: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: http://pcrm.org/research/edtraining/dissectionalt Teach Kind: http://www.teachkind.org/dissectalt.asp Animal Learn Ethics and Education: http://www.animalearn.org/sciencebank.php http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/dissection/ As the "study of life," biology should foster respect and compassion for animals. Yet dissection encourages neither; animal life is devalued and treated as expendable. "However, more and more students prefer to learn anatomy and physiology using humane alternatives such as computer-based programs, 3-D models, and videos, which are also less expensive to use. Educational research shows that students using humane alternatives learn as well or better than students using animals."

I would hypothesize that I am not as great of a proponent for animal rights as you Mz Merizalde, but this does not mean I do not respect life. As a student, our exercises with dissection were not geared toward generating compassion for animals. My instructors did not set a precedence of respect for the creatures we were studying and it opened the door for ignorant abuse of the specimens by my peers. It is paramount for instructors to set the climate of the classroom to respect life prior to conducting exercises which involve utilizing a body.

I definitely agree with Sandy- we found much more success when we did the virtual dissection first

I recently attended a conference and one of the discussions revolved around good virtual dissection opportunities. Most of us have had minimal success finding good resources. One of the participants emailed me this list they found useful. I haven’t had a chance to check them all out yet, but many seem to be pretty decent. Alternatives to Dissection Websites Virtual Dissections: The Mining Company (http://biology.about.com/cs/dissections/) hosts the following Virtual Dissections: Cat Dissections Online Virtual Frog Dissection Kit Clam Dissection Virtual Mouse Necropsy Cockroach Dissection The Virtual Pig Dissection Cow’s Eye Dissection Rat Dissection Guide I and II Crayfish Dissection Sheep Brain Dissection: The Anatomy of Memory Dissecting the Earthworm Squid Dissection The Interactive Frog Dissection Starfish Dissection Tutorial Cat Dissection http://www.bhs.berkeley.k12.ca.us/departments/Science/anatomy/cat/index.html Froguts http://www.froguts.com/flash_content/index.html Stanford’s Virtual Creatures http://k-2.stanford.edu/frog-island.html Sheep Brain Dissection Guide http://academic.uofs.edu/department/psych/sheep/ Human Anatomy The Virtual Body http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp Body Quest http://library.thinkquest.org/10348 Visible Human Project http://www.madsci.org/~lynn/VH Virtual Hospital: Brain http://www.vh.org/Providers/Textbooks/BrainAnatomy/BrainAnatomy.html Alternatives Loan Programs: The following organizations loan alternatives to animal dissection and live animal experimentation The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): http://www.hsus.org/ace/11378 The American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS): http://www.aavs.org/education01.html The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS): http://www.navs.org/education/dissection_loan_program.cfm?SectionID=Education Ethical Science Education Coalition (ESEC): http://www.neavs.org/esec/alternatives/alt_index.htm The International Network for Humane Education (InterNICHE): http://www.interniche.org/alt.html Alternatives Databases: NORINA (Norwegian Inventory of Audiovisuals): http://oslovet.veths.no/NORINA The NORINA database has information on over 3,000 computer programs, laser discs, films, slide series, 3-D models and classroom charts that can be used as alternatives or supplements to the use of animals in all levels of education. AVAR (Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights): http://avar.org AVAR maintains an Alternatives Education Database, with information on audiovisual and textual materials, computer programs, simulators and models for all levels of education. The database is a self contained program and can be downloaded for free from AVAR’s website. EURCA (European Resource Center for Alternatives in Higher Education): http://www.eurca.org/ EURCA maintains an Alternatives database, with full descriptions of the resources available. The database also contains reviews commissioned by EURCA, user comments, and other reviews and descriptions.

This post is actually super interesting and super helpful to me. I always hated frog dissections in school, and I am dreading the day that I actually have to teach the lesson. I'm so glad that there are now alternative options to teach about dissections. Not just virtual lessons, but there are now kits available as well. This is all very helpful to me.

This is such a great thread! We will do dissections in the next two weeks. Personally, I can do without doing dissections. But it is expected by our school community. I like the idea about planning a lesson on Animal ethics/respect before the actual dissection. I wish we had a favorite or like button here so I can tag this thread for future reference:)