How do you feel about animal disections in high school science classes?

Question

Yes, I know the animals are already dead but what does it teach the kids?

Answer 1

It teaches anatomy to students in a hands-on way that is impossible to really experience through a textbook. Seeing a picture of a liver in a book is different from pulling one out of a dead frog yourself - you get a better idea of its relationship to surrounding structures and how it's attached to them. You also get a nice appreciation of how idealized those textbooks images are - the real thing doesn't always look as pretty and clear as the textbook.

For example, as someone who's taken human gross anatomy, I can tell you that starting out, it's very difficult to identify the difference between arteries, veins, and nerves just by site alone (on a cadaver, they're not all color coded blue, red, and yellow like the textbooks). I really needed to touch them and feel them firsthand to tell the difference.

Of course, if you don't plan on pursuing a career in anatomy, or becoming a doctor/surgeon/whatever, I don't see why you should be forced to experience such a task. That being said, if you have an objection to dissecting animals in a high school science class, I think that many high schools will offer some sort of alternative to actual dissection. Computer programs are getting a lot better at simulating the experience, though personally I think there's no substitute for the real thing.

My two cents. The good news is that human cadavers are donated to science willingly, so if you have ethical concerns about cutting up poor defenseless fuzzy things - but still want to experience anatomy - I would suggest a human gross anatomy class.

Answer 2

Think about the kids who are planning to go into a medical or biology feild (especially with the popularity of shows like CSI, etc). This is a perfect opportunity for them to get hands on experience - which they can't get through a computer. If they can't handle a little bit of frog dissecting then they might not be ready (yet) for human anatomy stuff.

Many times the kids will work in a group and find ways to cope with the disection process as well. I think it's a good thing - though it was gross and I was fortunate enough that my lab partner was willing to do the majority of the disection while I just had to label. :-)

Answer 3

Disection labs are an important part of biology classes.

Sometimes the best way to learn about human anatomy is to dissect another vertabrate. Frogs and fetal pigs are the most common animals used for labs.

In some advanced placement biology classes frozen cats are used for labs. Cats and humans have many similar internal structures and that is why the advanced classes use frozen cats in the labs.

Not being a science major, I missed the dissection labs in college, and only observed my high school biology teacher do a dissection on a "fresh" frog. I wasn't grossed out, although some of the other girls were. It was interesting to watch a beating heart.

The summer between sixth and seventh grade I found a dead duckling and brought it home. I already knew all vertabrates were pretty much the same inside from studying the transparicies of the innards of a frog in the World Books we had at home. I took my mother's manicure set and opened the book to the frog transparacy and proceeded to open up the duckling. I found and compared the internal organs of the frog and duckling.

When my mother found out what I had done she was torn between being angry at me for runining her fine German steel manicure set and proud of my intellectual curiosity and self taught anatomy lesson.

Since I was a history major, I took non-science major science classes and missed out on dissection labs, and the only one I did was on my own was when I wasn't yet thirteen.

I think dissection and comparative anatomy are important even for high schoolers.

Answer 4

The animals they dissect are usually similar in physiology and anatomy to humans. Dissection teaches placement of the organs, bones, joints, etc. I personally don't think every student should have to do that, however I don't think that it is a horrible idea. If a student wants to go into health care, medicine, biology, etc, it is a good experience and teaches hands on what anatomy looks like.

Food for thought... The vet tech program a number of my friends have attended euthanizes all of the animals it uses in "wet labs" every year unless they can find homes for them. These animals have been given dental care, IVs, injections, sedation, baths, etc (humanely) and are then euthanized. While I don't think that it is necessarily the best system, it is what has to be done now. The animals that are used for these and other "training and educational" purposes often were going to be euthanized anyways due to over crowding and lack of adoptors. These animals are at least given a chance to allow students to learn. While it is not the noblest of careers, it is often better than the alternative.

Answer 5

I don't feel that they are necessary anymore. What it taught/teaches kids is how to identify the internal organs of whatever they are studying at that time.

To this day I still don't find disections necessary. Kids only prove that they can cut open a dead animal/frog and find the organs.

Answer 6

Everyone is different on this subject, but going through high school anatomy, we dissected a cat. Cats are one of my favorite animals on this planet, in fact 5 of them live with me :) I was able to see how they function - learn about common cat disorders, and body signs to look for the second a cat goes bad. There were alot of things i had never known and never would have known, if I hadn't gone through Anatomy. Now dissecting baby fetal pigs.... thats another story -gag-

Answer 7

Pro: Children learn about the organs and insides of an animal. They learn the differences between animals, how they survive, what they need.

Con: Where do they get the animals?

Answer 8

It was really gross and I was too immature to look into the animal and see the different parts. I still can remember that smell of formaldehyde, yuck!
It was unnecessary, an overhead projection or ditto copy would have done just as good.

Sorry if I lost anyone under the age of 30!!! LOL

Answer 9

I feel that they are necessary for learning (maybe a little gross).. the animals are humanely euthanized and used for learning purposes, who knows, maybe because of that one animal a student will become a vet and save thousands more!

Answer 10

it teaches them of the internal anatomy of a creature including the functions of that anatomy, I am not too phased either way if they use dead rates frogs etc because they are bred for that purpose.

until technology makes this practise obsolete then it is the best we can go with

I hope this helps