Certain body structures and adaptations can be seen in frogs that illustrate how they evolved over time and how they fill particular niches in the ecosystems they belong to. In addition to learning about themselves, students can learn about ecology and evolution through frog dissection. The organs present in a frog, and the way they are laid out in the body, are similar enough to humans to provide insight for students about how their bodies work. While the way their bodies work is nowhere near identical to a human’s, there are many similarities. One reason frogs are often chosen to be dissected is that their bodies provide a good overview of the organ systems of a complex living thing. While there are various aspects that may differ between humans and other animals, many of the organ systems in complex animals work in similar ways to those of humans. Seeing these organs and understanding how they work within a single animal allows students to understand how these systems work within many other animals, including themselves. In dissecting an animal, students see, touch, and explore the various organs in the body. There are many reasons that students in biology classes are asked to perform dissections, and they have a lot to do with understanding the body and the wider world. But, apart from inspiring the medical professionals of tomorrow, what is the purpose of dissection? And more importantly, why is everyone always dissecting those poor green amphibians? Here’s to their continued success and just the right amount of getting in trouble so that they can live happily ever after.There are many surgeons who say that they first discovered their life’s passion standing over a dissected frog in a middle or high school biology class. This student and many others are benefitting tremendously from new technology.
#Frog dissection lab game pro#
I received the cover photo for this blog from one of our stakeholders of an 8th grade girl using an iPad Pro clamped in a stand to enlarge her frog dissection in science class. And whatever is projected onto the board at the front of the room can be sent electronically to the student’s device.Īll of the platforms continue to race like a fairy tale hero on horseback to outdo each other with built in accessibility features like enlarged/bold format, enlarged mouse/cursor, special color filters for folks with color blindness, and many ways to have text converted to speech with more and more human-sounding voices.
Now students are able to get digital texts delivered to their devices through the Indiana Center for Accessible Materials (ICAM) and facilitated by their district’s Digital Rights Manager (DRM). The advent of one to one devices and built in accessibility has been a game changer for all folks with low vision, and especially for the teenage folks feeling all the feels. When you have a disability, feeling normal can be a luxury. This made me cry, not because she misbehaved, but because it was so normal. Another teen girl used the technology for some mean girl antics, inviting a peer to her desk and zooming in on other peers to make fun of them. Once I got a teen girl to use her magnifier because she had a cute student teacher and she could see him in hunky detail with it. Most of the students I’ve worked with have been able to move past the “everyone is watching me” mindset. Needing to use large print books that don’t fit in a backpack and using a magnifying device to see the board makes it harder. This fairy tale intro is one that I’ve heard throughout my years as both a PATINS specialist and a teacher for the blind before that. Her inner heart cried out, “Look at me!” and “Everyone is staring at me!” at the same time. She was also like every other middle school girl who wants to be noticed but is painfully averse to being singled out. She was like every other middle school girl, in that she wanted to succeed in school.
Once upon a time there was a girl in middle school.
A student with blue plastic gloves completes a frog dissection using an iPad to enlarge her view of the task.